Since the last Subcommittee I meeting, 14 draft JCDs including 47 legal acts have been cleared and sent to the Commission. The Chair welcomed this positive development.

The Icelandic Delegation notified the Committee that a bill to incorporate the Food Law Package has now been introduced to the Icelandic Parliament. This issue has received high priority and will in all likelihood be resolved in the near future.

The Secretariat reported that the Commission has issued a recommendation on measures to improve the functioning of the Single Market as a part of its Single Market Review. This is a non-binding act and it will not imply legal obligations if it is incorporated into the EEA Agreement. However, it does create expectations that adhering states will implement recommended measures. The EEA EFTA States must now decide whether this recommendation should be considered EEA relevant. These issues will be dealt with by Subcommittee I.

The Secretariat reported on a conference in Montenegro on 6-8 October which focused on the extension of the Pan-Euro-Med Free Trade System to the Western Balkans. The Regional Origin Convention is now scheduled to be approved by the Pan-Euro-Med Working Group on 29 October 2009 and endorsed by the Euro-Med Ministerial meeting in Tunisia in December 2009. The Norwegian Chair emphasised that it would be important to include definitions of the EEA and EEA origin in the Convention.

With respect to the New Legal Framework for the Marketing of Products, the Secretariat noted that PROSAFE, whose office is in the EFTA Secretariat building, has emerged as a leading organisation in market surveillance on a European level. There are high expectations that its work will prove effective over time. However, there are also concerns over lack of funding, and proposals have been made to restructure the organisation’s financing. EFTA has the status of an advisory member within PROSAFE.

Several standardisation mandates have recently received considerable attention in the international media, in particular a mandate for personal music players and mobile phones which requires default safety settings to limit the maximum sound level in order to avoid hearing damage. This mandate, among others, was approved by Subcommittee I.

In relation to the Third Internal Market Energy Package, the Secretariat indicated that the Commission is planning to establish an agency, ACER, dealing with cross-boarder cooperation in gas and electricity matters. The Commission is in favour of EEA EFTA participation in the agency.