Brussels, 03/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - The deepening of bilateral EU-Norway relations as part of the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement, the Schengen agreement, bilateral trade in energy, fisheries and collaboration on the fight against climate change and on the reception for legal immigrants and refugees - these were the issues addressed by Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy during Solberg's visit to the European institutions on Tuesday 3 December. This is Solberg's first visit to Brussels since she came to office in September.
On Monday 2 September, Solberg met the secretary general of NATO to discuss defence issues, and she was due to fly to Athens on Tuesday afternoon in order to talk to Greece's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras about the priorities of the future Greek Presidency of the Council of Minister of the European Union during the first half of 2014.
During their press conference, Barroso and Solberg mentioned Norway's participation in the early stages of developing legislation governing the single market. Norway is required to apply this legislation as a top level member of the EEA (Norway will maintain its level of contribution to the EEA financial mechanism at 97% of the €1.8 billion budget). Barroso said that this collaboration is crucial for ensuring that legislation is applied uniformly in the EEA, and in Barroso's view, Norway's announcement that it will lift its reservation about the inclusion of the third postal directive in the EEA agreement is “an encouraging sign”. Barroso underlined the importance of future informal contact between the Norwegian government and the relevant European commissioners (seven Norwegian ministers will visit Brussels in the coming days, Solberg stated). As regards the chapter on deepening bilateral trade relations, Barroso hailed Norway's intention of changing the current system for cheese and meat, and encouraged the Norway to approve a new multilateral agreement with the EU, Iceland and the Faroe Islands on mackerel fishing in the North Atlantic. Discussions between the two parties also focused on broadening cooperation on energy as Norway is one of the biggest oil and gas suppliers to the EU. The two parties discussed developing interconnections between them on renewables as part of the fight against climate change. With regard to the fight against illegal immigration and protection of the EU's external borders, Solberg announced her country's participation in a recently set up task force for the Mediterranean. She also announced Norway's support for the Frontex mechanism. Lastly, the Commission will examine how Norway can participate in, or be associated with, the work of the European supervisory authorities in the area of finance. (FG/transl.fl)