On the agenda were internal market developments in light of Brexit, climate policy through 2030, and cooperation between Europol and the three EEA/EFTA countries.

Brexit

Brexit has been a subject of continuing discussion in the EFTA Parliamentary Committee since the UK referendum in June. In November, the committee had internal EFTA meetings on the subject, in both Geneva and Brussels. It was now time for an exchange of views with colleagues in the European Parliament.

“Given the importance of Brexit for us, it is important to hear what our colleagues in the European Parliament are already thinking with regard to the upcoming Brexit negotiations,” said Svein Roald Hansen (Labour Party), head of the Storting’s Delegation to the EFTA and EEA Parliamentary Committees.

“It is of course early in the process, but it’s important all the same to begin an open and active dialogue with the European Parliament about this. The meeting in Strasbourg also gave us the opportunity to emphasise that the EU and EEA/EFTA countries together must find a form of cooperation that ensures parallelism between Britain’s exit from the EU and from the EEA.”

Gunnar Gundersen (Conservative Party), deputy head of the delegation, added: “At the same time it was important for us to stress that the EEA will remain the framework of our trade-policy relationship to the UK until a Brexit, and it will remain, not least, our agreement with the EU regardless of Brexit.” 

Climate

Climate and energy is another topic that has dominated the agenda of the EEA Joint Parliamentary Committee for some time.

“For this meeting we had initiated a dialogue on climate commitments through 2030 with the European Commission and the rapporteurs in the European Parliament,”

Mr Gundersen said. “The European Parliament is now considering a Commission proposal on internal burden-sharing in the EU. This is highly relevant for us, since the Storting has decided that Norway will meet its Paris commitments together with the EU. Formal negotiations will start only after the EU has made its decision, but it is important for us to get a sense of what this decision may be.”

Mr Hansen added: “We had a very useful exchange of views with the EU side, and found that both the Commission and the European Parliament were well informed about Norway’s position.” 

Europol

The EEA Joint Parliamentary Committee also discussed the importance of closer police cooperation in Europe. The three EEA/EFTA delegations took the opportunity to brief the European Parliament on their respective countries’ cooperative agreements with Europol. 

As to Norway, the Storting emphasised that cooperation with Europol was good, and that Norway was one of the third countries whose exchange of information with Europol was most extensive. This was considered more important than before, due to the developing terrorism situation in Europe. 

The delegation also reiterated its desire for Norway to be represented in a new inter-parliamentary forum being established in the EU to scrutinise developments in Europol.

The delegation

Present from the Storting’s delegation were: Svein Roald Hansen (Labour Party), Gunnar Gundersen (Conservative Party), Marianne Aasen (Labour Party), Elin Agdestein (Conservative Party), Geir Toskedal (Christian Democratic Party), Jørund Rytman (Progress Party), Irene Johansen (Labour Party) and Ove Trellevik (Conservative Party).

The Storting’s Delegation to the EFTA and EEA Parliamentary Committees.