EFTA in the changing international environment with focus on EU relations development

The bachelor thesis analyzes historical development of EFTA and the EU relations, describes and evaluates current situation and outlines possible future development of these relations. The text is divided into three parts. The first chapter introduces the EFTA integration groupings, briefly characterizes its members and describes its relations with third countries. In addition, it focuses on the historical development of the EU and EFTA relations and defines the legal background of their cooperation (conventions). The second and the third chapter present the perspective of individual states on the EU integration, analyze the problems of interrelationship and think about the possible future development. First is the problem introduced from the view of the Scandinavian countries (Norway and Iceland), second from the view of the Alpine countries (Switzerland and Liechtenstein). The work reflects the current international situation in which in the context of the current global financial crisis that has affected also the European continent slowly changes perspective of some countries on European integration in favor of the EU as well as the benefits of a common European currency are highlighted.