The Delegation to the EFTA Parliamentary Committee and for Relations with the European Parliament (DelEFTA/EP) will be in Iceland on 23 and 24 June 2010, where it will attend a meeting of EFTA ministers – including the Swiss Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard – and the EFTA Parliamentary Committee. In the afternoon of 23 June, the president of the DelEFTA/EP, Ignazio Cassis (PLR/Tessin), will take part in a round-table discussion on the financial crisis and international trade as part of the festivities to mark the 50th anniversary of EFTA.
EFTA (the European Free-Trade Association) was founded in 1960 on the initiative of a number of countries that did not want to join the European Economic Community, which has in the meantime be renamed the European Union. EFTA’s headquarters are in Geneva and it also has offices in Brussels and Luxembourg. When it was founded in 1960, the association comprised seven members: Denmark, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. Today it has four members, namely Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, that are united through the Convention of Vaduz; this agreement sets out the terms of free trade between the member states. EFTA has also signed free-trade agreements with many other countries around the world.
Headed by National Councillor Ignazio Cassis (PLR/Tessin), the delegation will comprise Simonetta Sommaruga (Vice-President, PS/Bern) and Eugen David (PDC/St. Gallen) from the Council of States, and Brigitta Gadient (PBD/Grisons), Hans Kaufmann (UDC/Zurich), Marlies Bänziger (Greens/Zurich) and Kathy Riklin (PDC/Zurich) from the National Council.
Bern, 22 June 2010 Parliamentary Services