The programme for the 49th session of the EEA Joint Parliamentary Committee includes a discussion with members of the European Parliament and representatives of the steering group set up following the UK’s decision to leave the EU. The members of the EFTA/EU Delegation will hold talks with MEP Elmar Brok (European People's Party), MEP Roberto Gualtieri (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats), MEP Danuta Hübner (European People's Party) and MEP Philippe Lamberts (Greens - European Free Alliance) to learn more about the role of the European Parliament in the ongoing Brexit negotiations.
In addition, the committee members will discuss the European strategy of the Energy Union, and in particular its regulatory framework and draft legislation, which has become part of the legislative process in light of the «Clean Energy for all Europeans» package of measures. Specifically, a meeting with MEP Kaja Kallas (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) and MEP Hans-Olaf Henkel (European Conservatives and Reformists) will be held to discuss the planned agency for the cooperation of energy regulators.
The EEA Joint Committee combines the European Parliament‘s standing delegation for relations with Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and the EEA (the SINEEA Delegation) with the standing parliamentary delegations from the three EEA/EFTA member states (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). Although Switzerland is not a member of the EEA, it has observer status in the Joint Parliamentary Committee and is represented at the committee’s biannual meetings by members of the parliamentary EFTA/EU Delegation.
In the immediate run-up to the 49th meeting of the EEA Joint Parliamentary Committee in Strasbourg, the European Economic Area (EEA) Council also debated the functioning of the EEA Agreement, and in particular cooperation between the EU and the EEA-EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). In addition, the EEA Council held a debate on measures to develop the European data economy. National Council members Kathy Riklin (CVP/ZH), Hans Egloff (SVP/ZH) and Hans-Peter Portmann (FDP/ZH) represented the EFTA/EU Delegation at a joint meeting between the EFTA Parliamentary Committee and the EEA Council on 14 November in Brussels.