The newly-established Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) between the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and Icelandic local authorities held its inaugural meeting in Reykjavík, Iceland. The JCC, which brings together local and regional representatives from the EU Member States and Iceland, aims to ensure that Iceland's municipalities are fully engaged in the country's EU accession process. The meeting was an opportunity to assess the role of Iceland’s local authorities in the enlargement process, whilst also discussing the issue of increasing the absorption capacity of EU Pre-Accession funds and the future use of Structural Funds at the local level.
European Alliance Group member Stewart Maxwell, Member of the Scottish Parliament welcomed the increased cooperation. While he highlighted many areas of cooperation he also did not sidestep the difficult area of fisheries insisting that a solution needed to be found in the current mackerel 'wars' that would also ensure the sustainability of fishing.
