这一选项的制度安排已经以欧洲经济区（EEA）的形式存在，这从某种意义上讲是欧盟成员资格的前身，目前有挪威、冰岛和列支敦士登等三个繁荣的欧洲小国都在采用这种形式。
The institutional arrangements for this option already exist, in the form of the European Economic Area (EEA), a sort of anteroom to full EU membership, currently occupied by three small but prosperous European countries: Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.