INTRODUCTION

Article 194 TFEU, which grants the EU a competence in the field of energy, begins with a reference to the ‘context of the establishment and functioning of the internal market’. In EU internal market terms, energy is a good, and to trade in energy is to trade in goods. This also applies where the EU concludes an external agreement that covers internal market issues including trade in energy. The Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA) provides a useful illustration in this respect. The EEA Agreement links the EU and its Member States with three of the at present four States of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), namely Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (to the exclusion of Switzerland). The EEA Agreement extends notably the EU's internal market rules (free movement and competition law) to the three EEA EFTA States. Part II of the EEA Agreement deals with the free movement of goods. Next to chapters on agricultural and fishery products, customs-related matters and trade facilitation as well as coal and steel products, Chapter 4 deals with ‘Other rules relating to the free movement of goods’. Here, Article 24 EEA deals with energy. It states that ‘Annex IV contains specific provisions and arrangements concerning energy’. Annex IV lists the numerous measures of EU energy law that are relevant for EEA purposes and that, through this list, are part not only of EU law but also of EEA law.