Luxembourg, 23/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The 18th meeting of the European Economic Area Council was held in Luxembourg on Tuesday chaired by Iceland's Permanent Secretary of State, Sverrir Haukur Gunnlaugsson. The two parties adopted conclusions welcoming progress in enlargement negotiations, stressing the "common objective of simultaneous accession of new members in the EU and to the EEA, in order to secure the homogeneity and the good functioning of the European Economic Area". The EEA Council here stressed the need for these countries to submit requests for accession to the EEA, so that negotiations may be concluded simultaneously.
The EFTA countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) stressed that "EEA enlargement should not lead to new barriers to the trade regime in fish between the EFTA States and the enlarged EU", a reference requested by Iceland, which, with enlargement, should lose the benefit of its free-trade agreements in the fisheries sector with Poland and the Baltic States.
The two parties discussed a series of ongoing negotiations. They hope rapidly to reach agreement on EFTA countries' participation in European agencies for food safety, maritime safety and air safety. It now seems to be taken for granted that these countries will have no voting rights within the agencies. The main question in suspense is that of their financial participation. The conclusions refer to negotiations between the EU and EFTA on liberalisation in the agricultural sector and the abolition of customs duties for processed agricultural products.