About EFTA News

On 12 November 2012, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) held a Ministerial Meeting in Geneva under the Chairmanship of Mr Össur Skarphéðinsson, Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade of Iceland. The EFTA Ministers signed a Joint Declaration on Cooperation with Pakistan, represented by Mr Shahid Bashir, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva.

The EFTA Council met for the seventh time in 2012 in Geneva on 4 October 2012 under the chairmanship of Iceland, which holds the rotating EFTA chair during the second half of this year. The Council discussed the Ministerial meeting in November and ongoing free trade processes.

On 1 September 2012, Kristinn F. Árnason of Iceland will take up his duties as Secretary-General of the European Free Trade Association. Mr Árnason has a long experience in EFTA affairs, having been Iceland’s Permanent Representative to EFTA, the WTO and other international organisations in Geneva since 2005 as well as serving earlier as Deputy Permanent Representative to the Geneva organisations from 1987 to 1992. He was Ambassador to Norway from 1999 to 2003 and has held several other posts in the Icelandic Foreign Service, including that of Director of External Trade (1994-1998) and Chief negotiator on fisheries issues (1992-1994).

After six years at the helm of the Association, EFTA’s Secretary-General, Kåre Bryn, will step down on 31 August. Having been Norway’s Ambassador in Geneva and a Member of the EFTA Council from 1999 to 2003, Mr Bryn has a long experience in EFTA affairs. At their meeting in Gstaad on 28 June, the EFTA Ministers thanked him for his excellent service to the organisation and its members. In the following statement, the Secretary-General looked at EFTA’s recent past, the present and the future.