Atle Leikvoll to lead Norway’s new Brexit team

Atle Leikvoll (left), and Prime Minister Erna Solberg.Photo: Tore Meek / NTB scanpix

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has appointed diplomat, Atle Leikvoll, to lead a new Brexit working group.

 

The new working group will follow negotiations between the EU and the UK,’ said Minister for Europe, Frank Bakke-Jensen.

‘Now that negotiations are underway, it is natural to set up a separate working group to cover this. We are working in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Fisheries and other relevant participants’, he said.

During the past year, the leader of the new working group, Atle Leikvoll, was one of Norway’s delegation to negotiations at the G20, where Norway was a guest country.

 

Formerly Leikvoll has been EU ambassador and consul general in New York. Bakke-Jensen described him as a ‘knowledgeable and experienced diplomat. He knows the system and has a good network. And he is able to read processes,’  Bakke-Jensen told NTB news agency.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasised that Leikvoll won’t be leading a negotiating delegation, as negotiations are between the EU and the UK, and Norway won’t be a party to these.

Up until now, Niels Engelschiøn, Expedition Manager at the Department of Foreign Affairs Europe, has led the Norwegian working team on Brexit.

 

Experts from several ministries have participated in the work, as well as diplomats from Norway’s embassies in Brussels and London.

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today