Brussels, 18/11/2008 (Agence Europe) -Iceland, which has been hit full force by the financial and economic crisis, may soon apply to join the EU, in order to stabilise its economy and swap its Icelandic krona for the euro as soon as it conceivably can. At this stage, Reykjavik has not yet taken any decisions, but there is every indication that the country's traditional suspicions of the European Union are dying down within the government, the opposition and the population as the crisis deepens. The party of the Prime Minister Geir Haarde, the Independence party (right-wing), has just decided to set in place a committee tasked with looking into the possibility of joining the EU. The party, which has always been strongly opposed to joining the EU, has also brought forward the date of a congress scheduled for October 2009 to January to examine the conclusions of the committee and debate the European future of Iceland. "The prime minister remains personally opposed to accession, but he is prepared to review his position if the committee (set in place by his party) can put forward convincing arguments" in favour of joining the EU, Mr Haarde's spokesperson told EUROPE on Tuesday (our translation). The Social Democratic Party, which is a member of the government coalition, is already in favour of accession. The Progressive party (centre), currently in opposition, has also agreed to review its position on Europe at a congress in January 2009. This party, which has up to now been opposed to greater European integration for the country and which won 12% of the ballot in 2007, will come to a decision in January on whether to support a future application to join the EU, an Icelandic diplomat explained. Previously, the Icelandic population has always been extremely sceptical of Europe (the fishermen, in particular, are concerned about the common fisheries policy). However, the financial crisis has brought about a sea change in public opinion, with a recent survey revealing that 70% of respondents were in favour of accession to the EU. Should Iceland decide to apply to Brussels, accession negotiations will be made considerably easier by the fact that as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), the country already applies a good deal of the Community acquis. This is also the view of the commissioner in charge of enlargement, Olli Rehn. In the Icelandic press, he declined to speculate on a possible timetable for the country's accession, but acknowledged that "accession negotiations are liable to make faster progress than with other countries which do not have such strong links to the EU". (H.B./transl.fl)