EFTA Parliamentarians discuss future EFTA-EU cooperation

The Council Conclusions of 14 December 2010 on EU relations with EFTA countries served as a backdrop to the meeting, which was divided into three sessions. In the first session the Committee heard presentations from three university professors from Norway, Belgium and Switzerland. Professor Fredrik Sejersted from the University of Oslo spoke of the lessons learned from the 17 years of the EEA and elaborated on the work of the Review Committee on Norway's Relations to the EU, which he chairs. Professor René Schwok from the University of Geneva analysed the state of play in EU-Swiss relations and discussed future challenges and opportunities, while Professor Marc Maresceau from the University of Ghent discussed EU-EFTA relations in the wider context of the EU’s external relations.

In a second session, the EFTA Parliamentary Committee, which in 2011 is being chaired by Mr Svein Roald Hansen (Norway, Labour Party), had a discussion with the Ambassadors of Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland, taking stock of EFTA-EU cooperation in the past and immediate future.

Finally, the Committee members received a briefing from the European External Action Service on the functioning of the EEA and the Swiss-EU Bilateral Agreements, as well as the recent EU Council Conclusions.