Brussels, 29/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Talks on Iceland's membership of the EU are developing well, Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle announced on Friday 25 May, in Iceland. He expressed his “overall satisfaction” with the fact that, so far, 15 chapters of the talks have been opened and 10 are already closed, adding: “I hope that three more chapters will be opened in the near future”.
Chapters on fisheries and agriculture seem the most complicated. Füle hoped things would be clearer after the legislative elections in 2013. The EU and Iceland do not agree on mackerel quotas but, the commissioner pointed out, there is no obvious connection between the question of mackerel fishing and accession.
Füle also discussed two other chapters - food safety and free capital movements. “We have agreed, together with the Icelandic authorities, to establish an ad-hoc working group to assess the state of play and prospects for lifting of the controls and assist in forming a common understanding of the challenges in the process that should facilitate the Icelandic government's work in this respect. This is a positive example of how we can together tackle the most challenging issues”, he said on control of capital.
The commissioner's visit also coincided with the Icelandic parliament's decision not to organise a referendum on continuing accession talks at this point in time. “Iceland's fate is in its own hands and Iceland has decided to maintain its move towards the EU”, Füle said. He underlined that he was generally in favour of a referendum but that the work of those involved in membership talks must also be respected and that a referendum must take place once there is an offer of membership on the table. (CG/transl.jl)