Third-country economic relationships with the European Union

According to the European Union's official site, and a statement by Commissioner Günter Verheugen, the aim is to have a ring of countries, sharing EU's democratic ideals and joining them in further integration without necessarily becoming full member states.

The European Economic Area (EEA) agreement allows Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein to have access to the EU's internal market and vice versa.

Covers Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Russia (through the formation of common spaces).

The vision is that of a ring of countries, drawn into further integration, but without necessarily becoming full members of the European Union.

The countries covered include all of the Mediterranean shores of Africa and Asia, as well as the European CIS states (with the exception of Russia and Kazakhstan) in the Caucasus and eastern Europe.

The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership or Barcelona Process is a wide framework of political, economic and social relations between member states of the EU and countries of the Southern Mediterranean.

The Association Agreements signed with the Mediterranean states aim at establishing of a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area.

CARDS, short for "Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation", was established on 5 December 2000 through Council regulation Number 2666/2000.

Its scope is the Western Balkans countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia).

External links: ACP Countries at official EU site ALA, standing for "Asia and Latin America" is a programme for financial aid and cooperation with those regions.

The table is sorted by GDP (PPP) per capita to show the relative economic development level of the different countries.