Comité van de Regio's ontmoet afvaardiging IJsland (en)

CoR President, Luc Van den Brande, met today with Mr Halldor Halldorsson, Mayor of the city of Isafjordur and President of the Association of Icelandic Local Authorities, together with Iceland's Ambassador to the EU, Mr Jóhannesson, at CoR headquarters in Brussels on the occasion of the Open Days - the European Week of Regions and Cities. The purpose of today's informal meeting was to establish links between the two bodies following Iceland's application to join the European Union. President Van den Brande also took this opportunity to discuss ways in which the CoR could work with local and regional Icelandic authorities in helping them to prepare the country to join the Union. "The Committee of the Regions stands ready to work with Iceland's Association of Local Authorities in preparing the country's local authorities to join their counterparts from the 27 Member States in the EU's Assembly of 344 Local and Regional representatives." Said Luc Van den Brande at the conclusion of the meeting. Iceland formally applied for admission to the European Union in July this year and the European Commission has been invited by the Council to submit its opinion on the application. It is expected that formal accession negotiations could be launched in 2010, possibly under the upcoming Spanish Presidency of the EU. For more information, please contact: Denis Clarke +32 (0)2 546 8731 +32 (0)2 282 20 85