On Thursday 26 September 2024, the EFTA Court held an Anniversary Conference to celebrate its 30th anniversary in the Hemicycle Building in Luxembourg, the home of the EFTA Court for almost three decades.
The conference was attended by more than 250 participants, including Presidents and Members of EFTA States’ Supreme courts, the Vice President and judges of the European Court of Human Rights, the President, judges and advocates generals of the European Court of Justice, the President and judges of the General Court, ambassadors, civil servants, practitioners, academics and other well-wishers of the EFTA Court. The conference was also streamed via the Court´s website reaching a broad audience.
President Páll Hreinsson opened the conference and introduced the keynote speaker, the President of the European Court of Justice, Koen Lenaerts. In his speech, titled “Fostering homogeneity within the EEA through constructive dialogue: 30 years of coexistence of the CJEU and the EFTA Court”, President Lenaerts emphasised the importance of judicial dialogue and cooperation and mutual trust between judges and courts in the creation and maintenance of judicial and legal homogeneity. This was elaborated on by his legal secretary Professor Stanislas Adam, emphasising the constructive and fruitful cooperation between the European Court of Justice and the EFTA Court.
The morning session, moderated by Judge Michael Reiertsen, started with the contribution of the Vice President of the European Court of Human Rights, Arnfinn Bårdsen, who introduced the “Strasbourg Perspective” on the Protection of Fundamental Rights under the EEA Agreement and the development of the relationship between the Strasbourg Court and the EFTA Court.
Following this, Thérèse Blanchet, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union took to the podium. In her speech she contemplated the potential extension of the surveillance and judicial pillar of the EEA to other agreements such as the Schengen, Dublin and Swiss bilateral agreements.
The afternoon session, moderated by Judge Bernd Hammermann, started with the contribution of Hilde K. Ellingsen, Partner at Lund & Co and associate professor on “Effective Judicial Protection under the EEA Agreement”. She addressed, inter alia, the question of whether there was full parallelism or relevant differences between the EEA and EU legal orders.
All the speeches were received with great interest by the audience and were followed by questions and comments, including from former President of the EFTA Court, Carl Baudenbacher. The speeches were based on articles published in the EFTA Court Anniversary publication, The EFTA Court – Developing the EEA over Three Decades.
Next on the stage were Professor Halvard Haukeland Fredriksen and Professor Gunnar Þór Pétursson presenting their ideas of which 10 cases of the EFTA Court case law of over 350 cases, had been most important for shaping EEA law. Their lively presentation touched upon many of the Court´s best known cases, including Sveinbjörnsdóttir, establishing state liability, which they called the jewel in the crown of EFTA Court case law.
After their presentation, Judge Hammermann invited former EFTA Court judges in the audience to air their views on the list of the 10 most influential judgments and add their own choices. This was followed by lively discussions and comments from the audience completed by President Hreinsson´s intervention.
The concluding part of the conference started with the launch of the anniversary book The EFTA Court – Developing the EEA over Three Decades presented by the Registrar of the Court, Ólafur Jóhannes Einarsson. He introduced the contents of the book, and the Court´s tradition of publishing a book to commemorate milestones in its existence. Jonathan Tomkin, a member of the European Commission Legal Service, then elaborated on the subjects addressed by numerous authors contributing to the book and the common threads running through the book.
The closing remarks at the 30th anniversary conference came from State Secretary, Maria Varteressian, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Norway. She stressed the importance of the EEA Agreement and the institutional framework making the Agreement unique. She ended her address by mentioning the importance of the Court being capable of meeting future challenges and by extending her thanks and congratulations to the Court for a successful anniversary conference and publication.
Gallery of photographs
