EU regional trade agreements 1994-2025| ��ƽ��

Annual number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) coming into force and cumulative number of RTAs in force for the European Union from 1994 to 2025

Characteristic	New RTAs entering into force	Cumulative RTAs in force
2025	-	28
2024	1	28
2023	-	27
2022	-	27
2021	1	27
2020	1	26
2019	1	25
2018	1	24
2017	2	23
2016	-	21
2015	1	21
2014	3	20
2013***	3	17
2012	-	16
2011	1	16
2010	2	15
2009	1	13
2008	3	12
2007**	-	9
2006	1	11
2005	2	10
2004*	1	8
2003	1	14
2002	1	13
2001	1	12
2000	2	11
1999	-	9
1998	-	9
1997	-	9
1996	-	9
1995	7	9
1994	2	2

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Release date

April 2025

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Region

Europe, EU

Survey time period

1994 to 2025

Supplementary notes

Where an RTA included both goods and services and provisions for both entered into force at the same time, they are treated as one agreement. Where the provisions for goods and services entered into force at separate times, they are counted as separate RTAs.

*2004: Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia join the European Union, meaning their RTAs became inactive.

**2007: Bulgaria and Romania join the EU, meaning their RTAs became inactive.

***2013: Croatia joins the EU, meaning its RTAs became inactive.

Citation formats

The foreign trade policy of the European Union is one of the most notable policy areas which is managed centrally by the institutions of the EU, rather than by member states. The EU negotiates regional trade agreements on behalf of its members with partner countries, in order to facilitate greater flows of goods and services, and to open up new export markets for European businesses.

The EU's regional trade agreements

The EU has engaged in a number of distinct phases where it has negotiated regional trade agreements with partner countries. In the early 1990s it concluded a host of agreements with Central & Eastern European countries who aimed to join the union in the future (and did so in 2004 and 2007). In the 2000s and early 2010s, the EU concluded a new round of trade agreements with candidate countries in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, such as Albania (2006 & 2009), Montenegro (2008 & 2010), Serbia (2010 & 2013), among others. Since the latter half of the 2010s, the EU has turned its attention towards East Asia, concluding agreements with Japan (2019), Singapore (2019), and Vietnam (2020).