EFTA for people who don't know is regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, UK was one of the founding members. So UK may not have freedom of movement as before but it will be better than current situation right?
Just as David Cameron offered the Brexit Referendum to quell UKIP voters, do you think that EU or EFTA membership (or at least a referendum on membership) would be offered to quell pro-independence voters in a second Scottish Independence Referendum?
I'm not talking about a scenario where the Conservatives are in power. For starters, they're unlikely to offer a second Scottish Independence Referendum unless the Supreme Court ruled that they must. But with the present political situation, a coalition between Labour, the SNP and the Lib Dems doesn't seem implausible for the next General Election.
I just had a bit of a head scratching moment.
I knew that Norway wasn't EU, but EFTA/EEA. So, I was wondering what the difference was.
Lo and behold, Norway is free to make trade deals with other countries while being in the single market.
The current mess with the NI protocol (and everything else) could have been averted assuming the UK were admitted to EFTA (not a given, but not far-fetched).
It seems like the two biggest issues were 1) the freedom to strike trade deals with whomever and 2) ending freedom of movement.
I cannot recall a single Brexit supporter being able to give a single example of which EU laws they wanted to see abolished, so I count "Sovereignty" as simply anti-freedom of movement and some nonsense about bananas. Besides, any trade >DEAL< involves voluntarily giving up the sovereign ability to impose tariffs on something, so there's no difference between the single market and a deal with Australia beyond the degree of cooperation.
So, really, the UK could have had its international trade deals AND maintained full access to the single market if it was willing to accept FoM.
At the core, then, it was simply about keeping "THEM" out. How repugnant.
Hi there
I have been in Switzerland (VD) for 1.5 years on a regular employment contract and have a 5-year B permit.
I am close to getting a contract from a US company that does not have offices in Switzerland but for which I could work remotely. The job is great…
Could I become self-employed and bill this US-company?
If so, there are a few concerns:
- will it affect my residence permit status?
- I read that self-employed are not covered for unemployment - is there any insurance I could take that would help?
- would be great to know whether this is usually a good move from a financial perspective: how much more should they pay me to make this worth it? I read I would now pay all of the social security contribution (pension, etc) myself.
- is it a huge hassle to be self-employed in Switzerland?
Would really appreciate some guidance from people who’ve maybe gone through this process.
Thank you!
Would EFTA or EEA membership resolve a lot of the free trade/movement issues that have boosted Scottish independence/Irish reunification movements, while still allowing the UK to claim we have left the EU?
Could such a membership be politically palatable before the end of the next parliament (by which I mean after the next general election, which [#optimism] might see a more competent and principled bunch in power)?
Diagram of different European memberships below
https://preview.redd.it/rysqeytaicv61.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e06faf6613b2051a55dc416c28398af4035d1453
So a little background: I’m 30M living and working in Flanders, Belgium as a software developer. Fluent in Dutch and English. My NW is only in the 5 digits.
The thing is, with my current numbers it seems impossible for me to FIRE before my 50s. Belgian developer wages are relatively low and taxes here are some of the highest in the world.
My plan for the past few years was: have a steady low stress job, work on high risk (of failure, not money) / high potential return side hustles, invest in ETFs. But my side hustles and entrepreneurial attempts haven’t had much success over the years. So I’m considering to focus on increasing my job income instead. I’ll gladly accept “the golden (corporate) handcuffs" for a while.
I looked into working remotely for a country that pays better, like Switzerland, but it turns out I’ll have to pay taxes in Belgian because remote work means working in Belgiun and you owe taxes to the country in which you actually do the work.
My questions is: What countries, cities, sectors and companies should I pursue to maximize my savings/investing rate?
I'm an EU citizen moving to Switzerland at the end of August to start my master studies and I'm trying to understand if it is necessary to fill in a Form 18.44 and declare the luggage with household effects I will be bringing when arriving at Zürich airport. I'll bring at most two suitcases but I get the impression that the purpose of the form is when you arrive at the border with a car/truck and multiple boxes of items.
EU citizens reading this that moved to Switzerland - did you declare what you brought with you when you arrived at the airport?
I made a post yesterday about my contact with Finanstilsynet and my broker Nordnet about voting. As us Scandinapes know, they won't let us and they just try to brush it off with saying well that's just how it is.. look at what OUR website says about it........ same goes for Avanza apparently.
Last answer from Nordnet:
Hei.
Det er ikke mulig å stemme på generalforsamlinger i USA.
Dette står også beskrevet her: https://www.nordnet.no/faq/1523-kan-jeg-ga-pa-generalforsamlinger-i-utenlandske-selskaper-hvor-jeg-eier-aksjer?phrase=generalfors
Alle amerikanske aksjer står registrert på en felles nominee-konto i Nordnet sitt navn. Dette er standard oppsett for alle nordiske banker.
Det vil ikke være mulig med noen form for unntak når det gjelder gamestop.
Aksjen er med ISIN i USA og en sekundærnotering i Tyskland eller må andre markeder har ikke noe å si.
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They claim it's the standard setup for Scandinavian banks but, I have read DNB will let you vote but, you have to pay $250 for it. DNB also use Citi Group as their nomiee account for Gamestop.
Asked them to elaborate WHY we can't vote when it's clearly possible to do it if you pay for it. - still waiting for an answer.
Anyways, I think it IS possible to vote, they probably just can't be bothered with setting it up for us. And since no one ever asked about this before, they just keep it that way. less hassle for them..
Another ape u/MoistMoisture__ reached out and told me they been in contact with EFTA - European Free Trade Association and got a link sent from them:
https://www.efta.int/eea-lex/32007L0036
I've read my first legal document today, it's not a lot of pages but, im pretty smooth brained when it comes to this, so if there's any Apes out there that understands legal talk please have a look.
Ackchuyally you should have a look no matter what and maybe ev
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Jeg vet ikke så mye om for -og motargumenter for EU-medlemsskap, så jeg vil sette meg mer inn i dette før Stortingsvalget til høsten. Vi har hatt EØS-avtalen i snart 30 år nå, og har dermed hatt tilgang til EUs indre marked (nærmest fri flyt (stor grad av tollfrihet) av varer og tjenester over grensene med andre EU-land, hvis jeg har forstått riktig).
Hvordan vil EU-medlemsskap påvirke denne avtalen? Positivt er vel at vi får plass i EU-parliamentet, slik at vi har en stemme som vi kan bruke til vårt favør. Foreløpig har vi liten/ingen påvirkningskraft overfor EU, så det vil bli bedre ved evt. medlemskap. Negativt så vil vi da få mindre makt over interne saker i landet, og mange av avgjørelsene vil bli flyttet til Brussel. Mange mener nok at vi da gir fra oss mye makt og selvbestemmelse som da vil bli sentralisert til kontinentet. Fri flyt av arbeidskraft fra Europeiske land vil det kanskje bli enda mer av ved EU-medlemskap (som vi allerede har med EØS-land.
I tillegg lurer jeg på hvilke parti som er spesifikt imot eller for EU-medlemskap. Vet garantert at Rødt, SV og SP er imot EU-medlemskap. Mener at AP tenderer pro-EU også nå, og er ganske sikker på at Høyre er for. Synes å huske at Venstre også har stemt internt for pro-EU. FRP er for EØS, men mot EU fra det jeg har forstått. Selvfølgelig er det uenigheter innad i partiene, så trur ikke det blir ny EU-avstemning med det første.
En annen diskusjon er jo om vi skal være medlem av EØS i det hele tatt. Selv tenderer jeg for, fordi vi drar mye godt av tilgang til EUs marked. Men jeg skjønner også de som er imot, men ofte så kommer de ikke med et godt alternativ til EØS-avtalen.
I have applied for several positions, but I'm from the UK, which is a non-EU/EFTA member state. Third country citizens have to go through a lot of extra stuff to work in Switzerland, but I'm not sure how much CERN really cares about that extra hassle. There are lots of Associate Members that are non-EU, and the UK and Israel are full Members but non-EU, so I would assume they treat all eligible applicants equally.
I have already applied, so this isn't a huge deal, but this is something I'm curious about. Does anyone have any opinion?
I'm confused over the different levels of European trade and customs and movement treaties. Why doesn't the UK go for a Norwegian type deal with the UK? They would control their agriculture and fisheries that way. Is if the "sovereignty" issue? Leavers dont want to adopt any EU laws? Don't want to pay the EU any fees?
In 1960, the European Free Trade Association was formed as an alternative trade bloc to the European Economic Community (which later became the basis for the European Union). At creation, the EFTA consisted of Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, while Finland, Liechtenstein, and Iceland joined over the following decades.
In OTL, many of the members of EFTA left to join the EEC/EU, but what if they instead remained in the EFTA and encouraged more countries which were not part of either the EFTA or EEC to join them? How would the political and economic landscape in Europe be different?
