Brussels, 20/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - According to a poll published in Iceland's daily newspaper Frettabladid on Friday 20 March, around 63% of the Icelandic population are against withdrawing Iceland's application for membership of the European Union (see EUROPE 11274).
The Icelandic government announced the withdrawal of its application on 12 March, as the government believed that “the interests of Iceland are better served outside the European Union”. However, this announcement is considered to be illegal, as neither the parliament nor the population were consulted.
According to the opinion poll, 44% of people questioned are “completely opposed” to the government's move and 19% are “fairly opposed”. A further 15% are “totally in favour” and 9% “fairly in favour”, with 13% holding no opinion. Last Sunday, 7,000 Icelanders took part in a protest demonstration in Reykjavik, which is a very high number of people to be mobilised given the size of the country. Elected in 2013 on a eurosceptic programme, the centre-right majority has never managed to garner a majority of parliamentarians to stop the EU accession process because some want a referendum. For the majority of Icleanders, the idea of submitting fish catches to European quotas is not popular. The chapter on fishing was never tackled in the accession negotiations that took place between June 2012 and January 2013. (Lionel Changeur)