Brussels, 02/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 1 July, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, “warmly” congratulated the president of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grímsson, on his re-election. Wishing him “every possible success”" during his term in office, the Commission president said that he was looking forward to continuing his work with the Icelandic president and his people.
With accession negotiations continuing, Barroso said that he was sure that he and Ragnar Grimsson would continue to have “an open and constructive discussion about how to make progress on Iceland's path of European integration”. “I am confident that under your leadership, the close cooperation between the European Union and Iceland will deepen further, both in our traditional partnership within the framework of the Agreement on the European Economic Area and in our continuously strengthened bilateral relations”, he told the Icelandic president.
Olafur Ragnar Grimsson was decisively re-elected on 30 June for a fifth term as president, a largely honorary post, with 52.5% of the vote, against 33.2% for Thora Arnorsdottir, a 37-year-old journalist with no political experience. (CG/transl.fl)