What does EEA and CH stand for?
#1
Original Poster
FlyerTalk Evangelist




Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Somwhere on the highways and byways of the United States
Programs: WWBTNFTMTP Evangelist
Posts: 16,738
What does EEA and CH stand for?
I just got back from Europe and the passport control points had a line for "EU, EEA and CH" I know what EU is but what are the other two.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
#2
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 279
EEA - European Economic Area (those coutries who don't have EU membership but have many of the same benefits - namely Norway and Switzerland)
CH - Switzerland
CH - Switzerland
#3


Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: London. Or a plane.
Programs: "Only" 650,000 nTPs until BA GGLfL
Posts: 2,888
CH stands for "Confederatio Helveticae" which is latin for 'The swiss confedation" (note the plural use of the word Swiss). It is the official (if there is such a thing) name of Switzerland. You'll notice Swiss cars bear the emblem "CH" on the rear to designate them as swiss on the road.
Alex
Alex
#4
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: IAH
Posts: 2,674
Originally Posted by alexwuk
CH stands for "Confederatio Helveticae" which is latin for 'The swiss confedation" (note the plural use of the word Swiss). It is the official (if there is such a thing) name of Switzerland. You'll notice Swiss cars bear the emblem "CH" on the rear to designate them as swiss on the road.
Alex
Alex
M8
#5
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: SFO
Programs: AA PLT; UA Gold
Posts: 5,378
Originally Posted by alexwuk
You'll notice Swiss cars bear the emblem "CH" on the rear to designate them as swiss on the road.
#6
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 1
As you know, EU is European Union. So, that means all EU members.
EEA is European Economic Area. It's composed of EU members plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
CH means Switzerland. It stands for Confoederatio Helvetica (Latin for Swiss Confederation). Because Switzerland has 4 official languages, it use the Latin name as language-neutral option. Thus, CH and CHE became the country code for Switzerland (United States has US/USA, Germany DE/DEU, France FR/FRA, etc.)
So why do citizens from these countries have special lanes? That's because in EU treaty, member states citizens are free to move and live within the Union territories (much like being in a single country). The EEA also has similar arrangement that entitles the same freedom. For Switzerland, they have a separate bilateral agreement for exactly that. That's why EU/EEA/CH citizens are welcome to use that special lane and we can be sure that they have a much easier time clearing the immigration than others.
Maybe a mistake in typing, but Switzerland is not formally part of EEA. However, it is true that Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein form the EFTA (European Free Trade Area).
CH stands for "Confoederatio Helvetica" and the "Helvetica" (meaning: Swiss) is definitely not in the plural form (for linguistic reasons). IDK from where you're told about the plural form, but that's incorrect (and ungrammatical).
EEA is European Economic Area. It's composed of EU members plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
CH means Switzerland. It stands for Confoederatio Helvetica (Latin for Swiss Confederation). Because Switzerland has 4 official languages, it use the Latin name as language-neutral option. Thus, CH and CHE became the country code for Switzerland (United States has US/USA, Germany DE/DEU, France FR/FRA, etc.)
So why do citizens from these countries have special lanes? That's because in EU treaty, member states citizens are free to move and live within the Union territories (much like being in a single country). The EEA also has similar arrangement that entitles the same freedom. For Switzerland, they have a separate bilateral agreement for exactly that. That's why EU/EEA/CH citizens are welcome to use that special lane and we can be sure that they have a much easier time clearing the immigration than others.
CH stands for "Confederatio Helveticae" which is latin for 'The swiss confedation" (note the plural use of the word Swiss). It is the official (if there is such a thing) name of Switzerland. You'll notice Swiss cars bear the emblem "CH" on the rear to designate them as swiss on the road.
Alex
Alex
Last edited by evanc0912; Aug 15, 2015 at 2:00 pm Reason: adding info about EFTA
#7
Senior Moderator




Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Francisco, CA
Programs: UA Plat/2MM [23-yr. 1K, now emeritus] clawing way back to WN-A List; MR LT Titanium; HY Whateverist.
Posts: 12,458
evanc912, welcome to FlyerTalk!
Our etiquette discourages bumping up very old inactive threads for the reason that much of the data may be unreliable. I'll close this thread now but sincerely invite you to participate and share your knowledge in the plethora of current threads on the site. Thanks, Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.
Our etiquette discourages bumping up very old inactive threads for the reason that much of the data may be unreliable. I'll close this thread now but sincerely invite you to participate and share your knowledge in the plethora of current threads on the site. Thanks, Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

