EEA Joint Parliamentary Committee meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs in Liechtenstein

Published 23-05-2016
From left: Mr Sven Erik Svedman, President, EFTA Surveillance Authority, Mr Kurt Jaeger, Ambassador, Liechtenstein; Ms Aurelia Frick, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liechtenstein.
The EEA Joint Parliamentary Committee (EEA JPC) held the first of its biannual meetings for 2016 in Vaduz on 19 and 20 May to discuss current topics related to the EU and the EEA, including the European Commission’s Single Market Strategy for Goods and Services, and the collaborative economy.

The EEA JPC’s primary objective is to follow developments in the EEA and to give its views on these at the earliest stage possible, therefore these biannual meetings are of great importance. On this occasion the EEA JPC met with the EFTA President of the EEA Council, Ms Aurelia Frick, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Liechtenstein; Ms Anne Luwema, Dutch Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, representing the EU President of the EEA Council; Mr Claude Maerten, EU President of the EEA Joint Committee; and Mr Sven Erik Svedman, President of the EFTA Surveillance Authority; all of whom provided an update on recent developments in the EEA.

The EEA JPC also discussed the Commission’s Single Market Strategy for Goods and Services. This strategy is highly relevant to the EEA EFTA States as they are part of the EU’s Single Market through the EEA Agreement. Another important topic discussed was the collaborative economy, which has increasingly made its impact on the Single Market.

In addition to these discussions, Mr Christian Frommelt, Research Fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute, briefed the EEA JPC on the migration situation in Europe, and Ms Andrea Entner-Koch, Director of the EEA Coordination Unit in Liechtenstein, provided an update on the incorporation of the financial services legislation into the EEA Agreement.

The meeting was co-chaired by Mr Jørn Dohrmann, EEA JPC President and Chair of the SINEEA delegation in the European Parliament, and Mr Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, EEA JPC Vice President and Member of the Icelandic Parliament.

Representatives of the Swiss Parliament attended the meeting as observers.

High-resolution photos from the meeting.

Resolutions adopted by the EEA Joint Parliamentary Committee:
The Collaborative Economy
The Single Market Strategy for Goods and Services

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