European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority

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thumb|250px|legend|#008000|Countries under the Surveillance Authoritylegend|#000080|Countries under the European Commission]

The European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority performs the European Commission's role as "guardian of the treaties" for the countries of the European Free Trade Association. By this the authority is tasked with ensuring laws and regulations are properly enacted by members, taking them to the European Free Trade Association Court. The Authority has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

Establishment

The original plan for the EEA lacked the EFTA Surveillance Authority, and instead had the European Commission exercising this role. However, during the negotiations for the EEA agreement, the European Court of Justice informed the Council of the European Union by way of letter that they considered that giving the EU institutions powers with respect to non-EU member states would be a violation of the treaties, and therefore the current arrangement was developed instead.

Membership

thumb|225px">
legend|#66FF99|Former members, now EU statesThe Authority is composed of a college of three members, one from each country. Unlike the European Commission, the members of the Authority are largely administrative in nature with little political history. The body is appointed for a 4 year term, but the President is selected from among them every 2 years. The current President was appointed in 2006.

Per Sanderud (Norway):President, with responsibility for External relations, legal & executive affairs, administration and state aid

Kurt Jaeger (Liechtenstein): Responsibility for free movement of persons, free movement of services, free movement of capital, intellectual property rights and horizontal provisions (environment, health and safety at work, labour law, equal rights for men and women, company law and consumer rights).

Kristján Andri Stefánsson (Iceland): Responsibility for competition, public undertakings, monopolies, public procurement and free movement of goods (veterinary and phytosanitary matters, technical regulations, standards, testing & certification, product liability and energy).

Aside from the college, the Authority has a staff of 60. its working language is English but it communicates with people outside the authority in any EEA language.

ee also

* Free trade areas in Europe
* European Free Trade Association
* European Free Trade Association Court
* European Economic Area
* European Union
* European Commission

External links

* [http://www.eftasurv.int/ EFTA SA website]