THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN FREE TRADE ORGANISATION
To: Nathan de Rothschild PC MP, Department of State for Commerce, Orange-bourgogne
We the Council of the EFTO wish to address your concerns and we will now address them as follows;
Becoming an Observer member of any organisation, particularly when it comes to free-trade, requires some common rules between the various signatories. There must be rules in order to make sure such arrangements are mutually beneficial. We are quite happy to review your request as an observer to engage with free trade while not aligning with the free movement of people. I feel we made that clear it would be reviewed by the current Delegates of the Council. Of course if your state was applying for full membership it would be required to follow the Convention in full. It is however fully expected that any Observer will align with the principals of free trade with member states, and treat each member state equally with regards to trade. I hope we have made it clear that while Observer status does afford states the right to not sign up to parts of the Convention, the Council takes each Observer application on a case by case basis depending on the wishes of the Observer in question. Hence, we needed to clarify which part of the Convention your nation took exception with.
With regards to your other point, I struggle to see where this insinuation that we would force an Observer state to engage with a third nations or blocs comes from. We specifically stated it would apply to new member states approved by the Council. This does not include third parties the EFTO engages into free trade agreements with. Orange-bourgogne trade relations outside of the EFTO will be entirely within the remit of your national parliament. Any of your existing trade agreements with non-EFTO nations will also not be affected. So to be really clear, any new Full Member States to the EFTO, we expect all Observer's and trade partners to treat them as they would any other member of the EFTO.
To address what you say when you speak about your parliament only following EFTO directives that it considers a "good idea". The Council similarly will only make agreements based on what is beneficial to the EFTO, its member states, observer states and trade partners. So we find your Office's hostility towards the Council very concerning and quite frankly baffling with regards to threatening to withdrawing your application. We hope the Council and your Parliament, through your appointed representative should your application be approved, will work closely together to engage in any potential new articles on the Convention.
The EFTO does not wish to encroach on your national sovereignty. On the occasion that an article is voted through by the Council and your parliament is not willing to accept, which we hope will be rare, as an observer it will not have to adhere. However whenever an Observer does not align with a new article, their case for Observer status may be reviewed by the Council once more.