Delegations from the EFTA States and Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan met for a fourth round of negotiations on a broad-based prefer­ential trade agreement from 16 to 19 January 2012 in Kazan, Russia.

On 19 January 2012, a record 170 participants from both the public and private sectors attended the EFTA Secretariat’s biannual seminar on the EEA.

The first part of the seminar was dedicated to presentations on the EFTA Secretariat, the EFTA Court, the EFTA Surveillance Authority, the EFTA Statistical Office and the EFTA Financial Mechanism Office. These focused on the day-to-day management of the EEA Agreement in the different institutions’ respective areas of competence.

The EEA Joint Committee decided yesterday to incor­porate the Directive on the promotion of the use of renewable energy sources (RES Directive) into the EEA Agreement. Norway and Iceland have had the highest share of renewable energy in their power consumption in the European Economic Area (EEA).

The EFTA Consultative Committee (EFTA CC) has adopted an opinion on "A citizen's approach to the Single Market" which focuses on the need to promote the awareness and confidence of workers, business and consumers in the Single Market. The topic was also the basis for a joint seminar in Oslo on 13 December 2011 with a delegation from the European Economic and Social Committee’s Single Market Observatory (SMO).

The EFTA Working Group on Consumer Affairs met on 5 and 6 December 2011. One of the main points on the agenda was the Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (CESL) which was put forward by the Commission on 11 October 2011.