Central European Free Trade Agreement

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Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) Native names Marrëveshja e Tregtisë së Lirë të Evropës Qendrore (Albanian) Centralnoevropski sporazum o slobodnoj trgovini (Bosnian) Централноевропски договор за слободна трговија (Macedonian) Acordul Central European al Comerțului Liber (Romanian) Централноевропски договор о слободној трговини (Serbian)
Logo
Map of Europe (grey) indicating the members of CEFTA (blue)
CEFTA Secretariat	Brussels
Working language	English
Official languages of contracting states	7 languages Albanian Bosnian Croatian Macedonian Montenegrin Romanian Serbian
Type	Trade agreement
Membership	Albania  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Kosovo  Moldova  Montenegro  North Macedonia  Serbia
Leaders
• Chair-in-office 2023	Serbia[1]
• Acting Director of the CEFTA Secretariat	Danijela Gačević
Establishment
• Agreement signed	21 December 1992
• CEFTA 2006 Agreement signed	19 December 2006
Area
• Total	252,428 km2 (97,463 sq mi)
Population
• 2022 estimate	19,548,563
• Density	85/km2 (220.1/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2023 estimate
• Total	$423.680 billion[2]
• Per capita	$19,000
GDP (nominal)	2023 estimate
• Total	$153.863 billion
• Per capita	$7,100
Currency	6 currencies   ALL  Lek   BAM  Convertible mark   EUR  Euro   MDL  Leu   EUR  Euro   MKD  Denar   RSD  Dinar
Time zone	UTC+1, UTC+2
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2, UTC+3
Website https://cefta.int/

The Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) is an international trade agreement between countries mostly located in Southeastern Europe. Founded by representatives of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, CEFTA in 2006 expanded to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Kosovo.^[3][4][5]

As of 2024, the parties of the CEFTA agreement are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.^[3][4][5]

Former parties are Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Their CEFTA memberships ended when they became member states of the European Union (EU). Kosovo was originally represented by the UNMIK, but began representing itself in 2024.^[3]

Parties of agreement	Joined	Left	Joined EU
Poland	21 December 1992	30 April 2004	1 May 2004
Hungary
Czech Republic[a]
Slovakia[a]
Slovenia	1 January 1996
Romania	1 January 1997	31 December 2006	1 January 2007
Bulgaria	1 January 1999
Croatia	1 January 2003	30 June 2013	1 July 2013
North Macedonia[b]	1 January 2006	—	—
Albania	1 January 2007
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Moldova
Montenegro
Serbia
Kosovo[3][4][5]	23 October 2024[3][4][5]

Former Poznań Declaration criteria:

• World Trade Organization membership
• European Union Association Agreement with provisions for future full membership
• Free Trade Agreements with the current CEFTA member states

Current criteria since Zagreb meeting in 2005:

• WTO membership or commitment to respect all WTO regulations
• any European Union Association Agreement
• Free Trade Agreements with the current CEFTA member states

Contracting party	Accession	Population	Area (km²)	Capital	GDP in millions (PPP)[6]	GDP per capita (PPP)[6]
Albania	1 Jan. 2007	2,793,592	28,748	Tirana	54.338	19,009
Bosnia and Herzegovina		3,227,405	51,209	Sarajevo	65.667	18,956
Moldova		2,603,813	33,843	Chişinău	44.372	17,779
Montenegro		622,182	13,812	Podgorica	17.191	27,616
North Macedonia	1 Jan. 2006	1,836,713	25,713	Skopje	43.660	21,103
Serbia	1 Jan. 2007	6,690,887	77,474	Belgrade	175.318	25,718
Kosovo[3][4][5]	23 Oct. 2024	1,773,971	10,887	Pristina	27.185	15,398

The original CEFTA agreement was signed by the Visegrád Group countries, that is by Poland, Hungary and Czechia and Slovakia (at the time parts of the Czechoslovakia) on 21 December 1992 in Kraków, Poland. It came into force in July 1994. Through CEFTA, participating countries hoped to mobilize efforts to integrate into Western European institutions and through this, to join European political, economic, security and legal systems, thereby consolidating democracy and free-market economics.

The agreement was amended by the agreements signed on 11 September 1995 in Brno and on 4 July 2003 in Bled.

Slovenia joined CEFTA in 1996, Romania in 1997, Bulgaria in 1999, Croatia in 2003 and Macedonia in 2006.

All of the parties of the original agreement had now joined the EU and thus left CEFTA. Therefore, it was decided to extend CEFTA to cover the rest of the Western Balkans, which already had completed a matrix of bilateral free trade agreements in the framework of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. On 6 April 2006, at the South East Europe Prime Ministers Summit in Bucharest, a joint declaration on expansion of CEFTA to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro and UNMIK (on behalf of Kosovo) was adopted.^[7] Accession of Ukraine has also been discussed.^[8] The new enlarged agreement was initialled on 9 November 2006 in Brussels and was signed on 19 December 2006 at the South East European Prime Ministers Summit in Bucharest.^[9] The agreement went into effect on 26 July 2007 for Albania, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro and Macedonia, on 22 August for Croatia, on 24 October for Serbia, and on 22 November 2007 for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim of the agreement was to establish a free trade zone in the region by 31 December 2010.

CEFTA 2006 aims at expanding regional trade in goods and services, creating an attractive environment for investment, and contributing to economic development and cooperation within the Parties. Laying down on the principles of WTO rules and procedures and harmonising its policies with the EU legislation, CEFTA provides an effective instrument for the Parties to accelerate their European integration agenda. Since the establishing, CEFTA has been deepening the areas of cooperation based on the needs of the businesses and strengthening trading relations between the Parties. From achieving the full liberalisation of trade in goods and further liberalisation in trade in services, via reducing trade related costs, harmonising the policies within the Parties based on the EU legislation, to expediting trade between Parties through electronic exchange of information, CEFTA has proven as a framework that ensures transparent trade relations between the Parties that can enable the businesses to improve their capacities for different markets.

All former participating countries had previously signed association agreements with the EU, so in fact CEFTA has served as a preparation for full European Union membership.^{[citation needed]} Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia joined the EU on 1 May 2004, with Bulgaria and Romania following suit on 1 January 2007. Croatia joined the EU on 1 July 2013.

Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia have been undergoing EU accession talks since 2012, 2014 and 2022.

• Central European Free Trade Association (CEFTA)
• Economy of Europe
• Free trade areas in Europe
• European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
• Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (includes an array of bilateral FTAs)
• Mercosur
• Southeast Europe Transport Community
• Rules of origin
• Market access
• Free-trade area
• Tariffs

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Central European Free Trade Agreement.

• CEFTA official website
• CEFTA Trade Portal
• Original CEFTA Treaty
• Market Access Map (A free tool developed by International Trade Centre, which identify customs tariffs, tariff rate quotas, trade remedies, regulatory requirements and preferential regimes applicable to products, including CEFTA)
• Rules of Origin Facilitator (A free tool jointly developed by International Trade Centre, World Trade Organization and World Customs Organization which enables traders to find specific criteria and general origin requirements applicable to their products, understand and comply with them in order to be eligible for preferential tariffs. The tool is very useful for traders who want to gain benefit from CEFTA)
• CEFTA 2006 Agreement