A critical conversation about the EEA Review Committee’s report

In May 2022, 30 years after the signing of the EEA Agreement in Porto in 1992, the Norwegian government appointed an independent committee to review Norway’s experience as a member of the European Economic Area in the 10 years that had then lapsed since the previous such undertaking – the 2012 report of the Norwegian EEA Review Committee of 2010-2012. In the spring of 2024, as the EEA Agreement celebrates its 30th year in force, the EEA Review Committee of 2022-2024 handed its report over to the government.

A few months have gone by now, so the questions are then: What now? Will the report end up in a drawer or will it have an actual impact?

For this seminar, we are joined by two CENTENOL associates, our own Professor Halvard Haukeland Fredriksen together with Associate Professor Anne Elizabeth Stie from the University of Agder who were both members of the EEA Review Committee. In conversation with Associate Professor Ingrid Barlund, they will offer a slightly different perspective, taking us behind the scenes of how it actually is to write such a report, and the challenges that arise when seeking to fulfill the mandate at the same time as undoubtedly having to do compromises.

By asking the questions rarely asked in public forums, such as what they consider to be the report’s shortcomings, the audience will be guided through the main findings of this report, and issues in the intersection between law and politics, and between Norwegian national interests and dependence on the EEA collaboration. By looking back at the developments that have happened from the signing of the EEA Agreement until now, they will more importantly look ahead to where they believe the EEA collaboration is heading and how this report fits in as a resource in steering the collaboration in the right direction.”