European Union Association Agreement - Definition and Overview

A European Union Association Agreement (Association Agreement) is a treaty between the European Union (EU) and a non-EU country that creates a framework for co-operation between them. Areas frequently covered by such agreements incuded the development of political, trade, social, cultural and security links.

The EU typically concludes Association Agreements in exchange for committments to political, economic, trade, or human rights reform in a country. In exchange, the country may be offered tariff-free access to some or all EU markets (industrial goods, agricultural products, etc), and financial or technical assistance.

Association Agreements have to be ratified by all the EU member states.

In recent history, countries such as Albania, Republic of Macedonia and Croatia signed the association agreement also marked as "Stabilization Agreement".