Diana Wallis MEP says EEA countries are 'bystanders' in keynote speech in Reykjavik

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 22nd Oct 2004

Diana Wallis signing copies of her updated book "Forgotten Enlargement"

Diana Wallis MEP gave a keynote speech at the EEA and EFTA Conference in Reykjavik Iceland on 21 October looking at the challenges facing the 10 year-old organisation.

She spoke on the subject of the EU constitution and its impact on the EEA.

Diana Wallis MEP, President of the Parliament's Joint Parliamentary Committee to the EEA, said that "10 years of the EEA is a significant event. The EEA has served countries well in economic terms, especially helped to modernise their economies and provide a structure which has helped their participation in Europe's Internal Market."

"However it is fundamentally both a static and a technical agreement made 10 years ago since which time the EU has grown and gone through several large treaty changes and of course enlargement to 25 countries."

"The EEA/EFTA states while celebrating a 10th birthday are rather like the people of Europe watching the Americans vote for their President and knowing the result will have implications for everybody. So also the adoption by the EU of its constitution, which process the EEA/EFTA and their peoples can only watch, will have huge implications on the peoples of Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. All are bystanders in these significant events."

She went on to say, "The siren voices on the right-wing in Britain which claim a lose agreement with the EU is somehow better than full membership need to be reminded of the political inadequacies of the EEA on its 10th anniversary."

At the end of the Conference Diana Wallis MEP formally launched an updated second edition of the book, 'Forgotten Enlargement: Future EU relations with Iceland, Norway and Switzerland'.

In September, Ms. Wallis was elected as the President of the European Parliament's delegation to Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and the Joint Parliamentary Committee of the EEA.

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Diana Wallis MEP says EEA countries are 'bystanders' in keynote speech in Reykjavik

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