The EFTA Court: An Actor in the European Judicial Dialogue

The vertical dialogue with the national courts of the EEA/EFTA States, in particular the Supreme Courts, has assisted the EFTA Court in developing its case law concerning effect and State liability. Through this jurisprudence, EEA homogeneity in the field of effect and State liability has been maintained. The EEA Main Agreement has been implemented in the domestic legal orders of the EFTA States. EEA secondary law is being implemented in an ongoing process. The same holds true for the rulings of the EFTA Court. There has, to this writer\u27s knowledge, never been a case in which a national court refused to set aside a conflicting rule of domestic law, at least not in a vertical context. That fact is also important from a reciprocity perspective. With respect to the horizontal dialogue with the Community Courts, one must remember that in its Opinion 1/91 on the first version of the EEA Agreement the ECJ struck down a provision according to which the Community courts would have been under an obligation to take into account the case law of the EEA courts. In practice, the Community courts have shown openness in cases in which they agree with the outcome as well as with the reasoning of an EFTA Court decision

Mid-term evaluation of the support to strengthened bilateral relations under the EEA and Norway Grants

Through the EEA Grants and Norway Grants, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein aim to reduce economic and social disparities and strengthen cooperation with 16 countries in Central and Southern Europe. A mid-term evaluation of the current EEA and Norway Grants 2009-14 was conducted by COWI during the second half of 2015 and early 2016 at the request of the Financial Mechanism Office, EEA and Norway Grants. The aim of the mid-term evaluation is to assess to what extent and in which way the EEA and Norway Grants contribute towards strengthening bilateral relations between donor and beneficiary states. The evaluation covers four out of the ten priority sectors of the EEA and Norway Grants and five of the 16 beneficiary countries (Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), representing 19.4% of the allocated total of EUR 1.8 billion

Transnational judicial cooperation in the light of legal pluralism: a look at the relationship between the EFTA Court and the Icelandic Courts

Doctrines developed by the EFTA Court have placed considerable demands on national courts in the EFTA States. The Court now considers the EEA Agreement to form an “international treaty sui generis which contains a distinct legal order of its own.” It would thus seem that EEA law has transformed into an independent legal order, and subsequently has a claim to validity which emulates the self-legitimising presentation of the EU legal order. This, however, is not an empirically verifiable fact, but a particular understanding which arises when one adopts the viewpoint of the EFTA Court. EEA law takes place in a different realm when interpreted and applied in the national order: this realm is essentially a construction of the constitutional order. Case law shows that the Icelandic Supreme Court is far from accepting all EEA judge-made principles. This study will describe a context of legal pluralism by reference to the Icelandic legal system and its relationship with the EEA legal order. To illustrate the discussion, the most important case law relative to the interaction between Icelandic laws and EEA law will be considered in the light of legal pluralism - particularly the principles of contrapunctual law designed by Miguel Maduro. The paper argues that the Supreme Court’s internal domestic approach to the application of EEA law will inevitably become a source of fragmentation unless it takes place within an institutional framework of judicial tolerance and judicial dialogue

Monitoring response to hepatitis B and C in EU/EEA: testing policies, availability of data on care cascade and chronic viral hepatitis-related mortality – results from two surveys (2016)

Objectives: The World Health Organization (WHO) developed a European Regional Action Plan (EAP) to fast-track action towards the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis. Robust monitoring is essential to assess national programme performance. The purpose of this study was to assess the availability of selected monitoring data sources in European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) Member States (MS). Methods: Availability of data sources at EU/EEA level was assessed using two surveys distributed to 31 EU/EEA MS in 2016. The two surveys covered (A) availability of policy documents on testing; testing practices and monitoring; monitoring of diagnosis and treatment initiation, and; (B) availability of data on mortality attributable to chronic viral hepatitis. Results: Just over two-thirds of EU/EEA MS responded to the surveys. 86% (18/21) reported national testing guidance covering HBV, and 81% (17/21) covering HCV; while 33% (7/21) and 38% (8/21) of countries, respectively, monitored the number of tests performed. 71% (15/21) of countries monitored the number of chronic HBV cases diagnosed and 33% (7/21) the number of people treated. Corresponding figures for HCV were 48% (10/21) and 57% (12/21). 27% (6/22) of countries reported availability of data on mortality attributable to chronic viral hepatitis. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that sources of information in EU/EEA Member States to monitor the progress towards the EAP milestones and targets related to viral hepatitis diagnosis, cascade of care and attributable mortality are limited. Our analysis should raise awareness among EU/EEA policy makers and stimulate higher prioritisation of efforts to improve the monitoring of national viral hepatitis programmes

The EC REACH Regulation and contractual supply obligations

REACH, as an EC legislative instrument in the form of a community regulation, is directly applicable in the national domestic laws of each of the 30 states in the European Economic Area (EEA). REACH now takes effect within the context of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the Treaty on European Union (TEU), both of which entered into force under the Treaty of Lisbon on December 1, 2009 and replace, as from that date, the prior governing Treaties of the European Union (EU). REACH prohibits the placing of registrable substances, on their own, or in preparations or articles, on the market in the EEA unless they have been registered and, when required, their use authorised in accordance with REACH. It also places obligations on sellers and buyers of such substances (or of preparations--and in certain circumstances even articles containing them) to pass product, risk and use information both up and down the supply chain and also to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), which is effectively responsible for managing the registration, authorisation and restriction process across the EEA and for co-ordinating the implementation of REACH by the EEA states. REACH has the capacity to have direct effects on the rights and duties of parties buying and selling within, and into, the EEA

Ornithodoros quilinensis sp. nov. (Acari, Argasidae), a new tick species from the Chacoan region in Argentina

Ornithodoros quilinensis sp. nov. (Acari: Argasidae) is described from larvae collected on the small rodents Graomys centralis (Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae) in Argentina. The diagnostic characters for this new species are a combination of small size (520-540 μm), a dorsal plate oval in shape with a length of approximately 200 μm, 14 pairs of dorsal setae, hypostome short and narrower at the base (length from Ph1 to apex 133 μm (120-141)) with dental formula 2/2 and apex blunt, and the capsule of the Haller's organ irregular in shape and without reticulations. The analysis of the 16S rDNA sequences available for the genus Ornithodoros indicate that, phylogenetically, O. quilinensis represents an independent lineage only related to a Bolivian tick species of the genus Ornithodoros yet not formally described.Fil: Venzal, José M.. Universidad de la Republica, Salto; UruguayFil: Nava, Santiago. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria Eea, Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Mangold, Atilio Jose. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria Eea, Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Mastropaolo, Mariano. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria Eea, Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Casás, Gustavo. UNIVERSIDAD DE LA REPUBLICA (UDELAR); . Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Guglielmone, Alberto Alejandro. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria Eea, Rafaela; Argentin

How Can the Actuarial Reduction for Social Security Early Retirement Be Right?

Traditionally Social Security's Normal Retirement Age has been 65, but for the last 45 years both men and women have had the option to claim benefits at the Early Eligibility Age (EEA) of 62. In exchange for claiming early, individuals receive a smaller monthly benefit. The legislation that established the EEA reduced benefits by 5/9 of 1 percent for each month before age 65, so that a person claiming at age 62 would face a 20 percent [(5/9)*36] reduction. This publication explains the factor of 5/9 and why it has remained constant since the establishment of the EEA.

Asia's Post-Global Financial Crisis Adjustment: A Model-Based Dynamic Scenario Analysis

Using a dynamic global general equilibrium model, the paper assesses the short- and medium-term impacts of the global financial crisis on Asian economies and the implications of post-crisis adjustment in emerging East Asia (EEA) for the world economy. The analysis suggests that EEA is unlikely to be severely damaged permanently by the global financial crisis, and a worldwide fiscal stimulus could play an important role in stabilizing the global economy in crisis. EEA’s efforts at strengthening regional demand, in conjunction with adopting a more flexible exchange rate regime, will promote more balanced regional growth and facilitate an orderly global rebalancing. However, despite the growing size of EEA in the global economy, the region’s growth rebalancing has only modest spillover effects on the rest of the world. EEA can contribute to global growth, but it alone cannot become the sole engine driving post-crisis growth in the world economy.Computable general equilibrium model; global financial crisis; Easst Asia; emerging

Mid-term Evaluation of NGO Programmes Under EEA Grants 2009-2014

The EEA Financial Mechanism (2009-2014) have committed 160,4 million to support seventeen NGO Programmes in sixteen countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Spain. The overall objective of the EEA Grants NGO Programmes is strengthened civil society development and enhanced contribution to social justice, democracy and sustainable development in each of the beneficiary countries. As of 30 of June 2014, 957 projects in total of 53,793,561 have been supported mainly in the fields of democracy, citizen participation, human rights, social justice and empowerment, sustainable development and provision of basic welfare services. The mid-term evaluation of the NGO Programmes funded by the EEA Financial Mechanism (2009- 2014) is an independent formative evaluation. Its objective was two-fold: 1) to assess the progress and needs for improvement of the current Programmes, and 2) to inform policies for the next financial period. The main purpose of this evaluation was to provide an expert independent mid-term assessment of the contribution of the EEA Grants 2009-2014 to the NGO sectors in the beneficiary states operating NGO Programmes. The evaluation was of dual nature: (1) of a formative evaluation to identify progress and needs for improvement of the current Programmes and (2) of a forward oriented strategic review to inform policies for the next financial period