Havard Ormberg

EFTA Court

The EFTA Court has jurisdiction with regard to EFTA States which are parties to the EEA Agreement (at present Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). The Court is mainly competent to deal with infringement actions brought by the EFTA Surveillance Authority against an EFTA State with regard to the implementation, application or interpretation of an EEA rule, for the settlement of disputes between two or more EFTA States, for appeals concerning decisions taken by the EFTA Surveillance Authority and for giving advisory opinions to courts in EFTA States on the interpretation of EEA rules. Thus the jurisdiction of the EFTA Court mainly corresponds to the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union over EU States. The proceedings before the EFTA Court consist of a written part and an oral part and all proceedings will be in English except in cases where an advisory opinion is sought by a national court of an EFTA State party to the EEA. In the latter case, the opinion of the Court will be in English and in the national language of the requesting court.