EFTA Standing and EEA Joint Committees meet on 19 and 20 May 2011

Published 20-05-2011
The EFTA Standing Committee and EEA Joint Committees met in Brussels on 19 and 20 May 2011 respectively. The EEA EFTA States met in the Standing Committee to prepare for the EEA Joint Committee. On high level meetings and EFTA activities, the Icelandic delegation informed the Standing Committee about the meeting of the Minister of Economy with his counterparts in ECOFIN, the Norwegian delegation reported on Foreign Minister Støre's meeting with his Hungarian counterpart Martonyi, and the EFTA Secretary-General reported on third-country relations.

At the Joint Committee meeting, 12 decisions were adopted incorporating 27 legal acts into the EEA Agreement.

Ms Yvonne Finger from DG Energy gave a presentation on the Energy Efficiency Plan 2011. This plan was introduced to ensure that the Europe 2020 target of a 20% saving in energy use is reached. Currently, the EU is only on track to save approximately 10% by 2020. It includes legislative and non-legislative measures targeting public and private actors.

The Joint Committee approved the EEA Joint Committee Progress Report, which will be forwarded to Ministers in the EEA Council on 23 May. Furthermore, the Committee took note of the EEA EFTA Comments on the future programmes in the field of education, training and youth (2014 – 2020), and on the Communication on early childhood education and care.

Finally, the Committee bid farewell to Ambassador Sletnes, who will be taking up a position in the EFTA Surveillance Authority as Norway’s member of the ESA College. This was also the last meeting of the President of ESA, Mr Per Sanderud.

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