EEA Joint Committee approves extension of urgent COVID-19 measures

Clockwise from top left: Per Strand Sjaastad, Clara Ganslandt, Head of Western Division at the EEAS and EU Chair in the Joint Committee, Chair Sabine Monauni, Head of Liechtenstein's Mission to the EU, and Kristján Andri Stefánsson, Head of Iceland's Mission to the EU.

On 23 October 2020, the EEA Joint Committee, meeting through videoconference, adopted 30 Joint Committee Decisions (JCDs) incorporating 34 legal acts into the EEA Agreement. The JCDs include some urgent COVID-19 measures, as well as one decision on CO2 emissions.

“We are pleased to see on today’s list, JCD number 150 which prolongs urgent COVID-19 measures on official controls. It was added last minute following a request from the EEA EFTA States and I would like to thank the EEAS for their hard work ensuring that the file could be adopted today,” said Sabine Monauni, Ambassador of Liechtenstein who chaired the meeting.

In order to address the specific circumstances due to the ongoing crisis related to coronavirus disease, the validity of urgent COVID-19 measures on official controls is being extended. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/466 ensures that the EEA EFTA States have the necessary flexibility to perform official controls to ensure food and feed safety, animal health and welfare during the crisis.

A JCD on CO2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars and for light commercial vehicles was also adopted. It is of high importance to incorporate Regulation (EU) 2019/631 into the EEA Agreement before 1 January 2021 in order to ensure that vehicle data from Norway and Iceland can be included in the calculation of vehicle manufacturers’ specific CO2 emission targets and average specific emissions from 2020 onwards. In fact, for some manufacturers the inclusion of data from Norway and Iceland will be decisive for whether they comply with their targets or not. It may also have an impact on the size of any financial fines imposed on manufacturers that do not comply with their targets.

“This is an important measure towards reducing CO2 emissions from road traffic in the EEA and towards reaching the targets of the Paris Agreement,” EEA EFTA Chair Monauni said.

The next meeting of the EEA Joint Committee is scheduled on 11 December 2020.

Provisional texts of Joint Committee Decisions in 2020

List of adopted Joint Committee Decisions (JCDs)