Brussels, 05/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Sunday 4 January, Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Davio Gunnlaugsson announced that at the start of 2015 his country planned formally to withdraw its application for European Union membership.
“Participating in EU talks isn't really valid anymore”, said the prime minister in a radio interview with Bylgjan. The withdrawal is justified “due to changes in the European Union” and by the fact that the ruling government does not want to accept “everything that the last government was willing to accept. Because of that, we're back at square one”, he added.
The ruling coalition is thus expected to present a legal proposal providing for the withdrawal of the country's application for EU accession, without being put to a referendum. This decision has raised protests because on taking up office in April 2014, the Icelandic government had promised to organise a referendum on the issue. A petition launched in early 2014, which garnered the signatures of over 53,000 Icelanders (22.1% of the electorate) demanded that a referendum be organised on continuing the country's accession negotiations to the EU. According to the polls, Icelanders would reportedly be little in favour of EU accession.
The European Commission told EUROPE that the decision to resume negotiations or withdraw its application was a decision that only Iceland can take. “In all cases, Iceland remains an important partner of the EU, through its participation in the European Economic Area agreement, its membership of the Schengen area as well as through cooperation on Arctic matters”, a Commission source added.
The negotiations with the EU were started in July 2009 and have been on hold since January 2013. They are hitting against several differences of opinion, including the issue of fisheries and fishing quotas. (CG)