Brussels, 04/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - At their eighteenth meeting in Reykjavik on 27 May, the European Economic Area Joint Parliamentary Committee (EEA) adopted a report on the liberalisation of the energy markets in the EEA, as well as its annual report on the 2001 EEA agreement. The next meeting will take place in Brussels in autumn 2002.
In its report on the liberalisation of the energy markets, the Parliamentary Committee stressed the need for this liberalisation in order to be able to achieve optimal development of the internal EEA energy market. The Committee is insisting opening-up measures for liberalisation be done in a non-discriminatory way that takes into account public service obligations and that the market be developed in a sustainable direction. The Committee is calling on EEA/EFTA Member States to establish independent regulators to enforce full competition and promote the interests of consumers in a liberalised market.
In its annual report on the functioning of the EEA Agreement in 2001, the Committee calls on the EEA/EFTA States to agree on a common position for the updating of the EFTA Agreement to counteract breaches in the legal homogeneity of the Internal Market as result of the EC Treaty changes. The Committee is concerned by protection measures adopted by the Commission on steel products, regarding them as an infraction of the EEA Agreement.