EU membership? No thank you!

European politicians and journalists visiting Iceland in recent months have been quite astonished to experience first hand how little interest Icelandic MPs and Icelanders in general have in joining the European Union. So astonished in fact that Icelandic lawmakers have repeatedly been asked if the EU application delivered by the Icelandic government in 2009 is really serious. Well, quite frankly it isn't. It is a door bell prank. No one really is there when the bell rings and the door is opened.

There is a reason why Iceland has never before applied to join the EU. There has always been a strong opposition to membership in the country. The necessary support among the Icelandic people has in fact never been there and the present government was and is well aware of that. Still the EU was deliberately told differently. And now the EU is waking up to a bad dream and realising that Icelanders quite simply don't want to join the EU and never have. That the EU application is in fact a lame duck.

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Iceland's Foreign Minister in his own world

Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson said yesterday in an interview with Mbl.is, the website of the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið, that he thought that support for his government's application to join the European Union had increased among Icelandic MPs. Ask what evidence he had for his claim he said he knew the parliament. Skarphéðinsson's Social Democratic Alliance is the senior partner in Iceland's current coalition government and the country's only pro-EU political party.

Today Mbl.is has asked leading people from the other political parties represented in the Icelandic parliament, Althingi, if their think support for EU membership has increased among their MPs. They all agree that they haven't sensed anything of that sort but on the contrary that there is a rising scepticism among them. This includes the chairman of the Left Greens, the junior coalition partner. It is safe to say that Skaphéðinsson's comments have amazed people in Iceland as no one recognises them to be true. Not even MPs in his own party find them in the position of being able to back up his comments.

Skarphéðinsson has been travelling to various EU countries this summer speaking with leading people about his government's EU application and has probably been giving them a wrong picture of the situation in Iceland including the claim that support has been increasing for EU membership among the country's MPs. The only plauseble reason why the Foreign Minister is putting forward this claim must be an attempt to calm Brussels over the little support joining the EU has in Iceland.

Sources:
Aukinn stuðningur við aðild (Mbl.is July 23, 2010)
Afstaða VG til ESB óbreytt (Mbl.is July 24, 2010)
Skynjar ekki aukinn stuðning (Mbl.is July 24, 2010)
Össur að tala til Brussel (Mbl.is July 24, 2010)
Ummæli Össurar koma á óvart (Mbl.is July 24, 2010)

New poll: Continued 60 percent against EU membership

According to a new public opinion poll in Iceland produced by Capacent 60 percent oppose joining the European Union while only 26 percent are in favour. The rest is undecided. This is in line with repeated previous polls.

Taking only into the picture those in favour or opposed to EU membership about 70 percent of Icelanders are opposed to joining the bloc.

Source:
Viðhorf til Evrópusambandsaðildar Íslands (Capacent.is July 6, 2010)

The Independence Party demands EU application withdrawal

During its national congress last weekend the conservative Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) stressed its previous policy that the interests of Iceland were best secured outside the European Union. Furthermore the national congress demanded that the ongoing application for EU membership would be withdrawn immediately.

The same weekend the government's junior coalition partner, the Left Green Movement (Vinstrihreyfingin - grænt framboð) stressed its opposition to joining the EU at its party council congress and furthermore agreed that the EU accession process would be reviewed. A decision whether the party will support a withdrawal of the EU application was postponed until next autumn.

Icelanders want EU application scrapped

New public opinion poll was published yesterday showing a large majority of Icelanders in favour of scrapping the ongoing application for membership of the European Union. According to the poll 57.6 percent want the application withdrawn while only 24.3 percent want to proceed with it. If only those in favour or opposed are looked at 70 percent want the application withdrawn entirely.

This is the same percentage that would vote no to EU membership in a referendum according to polls (Iceland will not join the EU unless first accepted in a referendum).

A proposal to a resolution has been put forward in the Icelandic parliament to withdraw the EU application backed by MPs from all the political parties represented in the parliament except one, the social democrats.

Sources:
Iceland to Win EU Backing to Start Talks, Draft Says (Bloomberg.com June 14, 2010)
Meirihluti vill draga umsókn um aðild til baka (Mbl.is June 14, 2010)
Tæp 60% vilja draga aðildarumsókn að ESB til baka (Vísir.is June 14, 2010)
Flestir vilja afturkalla ESB umsókn (Ruv.is June 14,2010)

MPs want EU application withdrawn

A proposal for a resolution will be put forward on Althingi, the Icelandic parliament, this weekend that the application for membership of the European Union should be withdrawn. It is initiated by Unnur Brá Konráðsdóttir, MP for the conservative Independence Party, and supported by a large group of MPs from various political parties represented in the parliament.

The Icelandic parliament narrowly accepted the EU application in July 2009. Some 33 MPs supported the application while 28 voted against it. Two MPs abstained. However, there is no majority for EU membership in the Icelandic parliament and has never been.

Many of the socialist MPs that voted in favour of the application were - and still are - against membership of the EU. But they supported the application to be able to form the current government with the pro-EU social democrats, the only pro-EU party in Iceland.

However, due to a extremely busy schedule of the parliament (dozens of large issues are on its schedule before its recession for the summer on next Tuesday and only few are bound to be addressed in time) it is not certain if the proposal will be voted on this time.

According to the latest public opinion poll in March this year 70 percent of Icelanders would vote against EU membership. An internet poll in May by the Icelandic radio station Bylgjan resulted in 75 percent saying the EU application should be withdrawn.

Source:
Umsókn um aðild að Evrópusambandinu verði dregin til baka (Mbl.is June 12, 2010)

Who is responsible for the Icelandic EU application?

Apparantly no one is willing to shoulder the responsibility for the Icelandic application for membership of the European Union. Today representatives from Heimssýn, the Icelandic organisation opposed to EU membership, met with Romanian MEP Christian Dan Preda explaining to him that Icelanders simply have no interest in becoming members. Preda emphasised that the application was not the decision of the EU but the Icelandic government when told that the best thing to do was to put the whole thing on ice.

Predas comments cannot be understood otherwise than as an attempt to wash his and the EUs hands of responsibility for the application. Similar comments were made by EU representatives to the media last autumn when opinion polls in Iceland were showing an increased opposititon among Icelanders to EU membership. According to the results or the latest one published at the beginning of March this year as much as 70 percent of Icelanders would reject membership in a referendum.

While the EU points the finger at the Icelandic government claiming it solely responsible for the application the social democrat Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson insists he is only executing the decision of the Icelandic parliament. Still everybody knows that it was his government that pushed the application through the parliament a year ago with a narrow majority. Within the government the junior coalition partner, the Left Greens, then points the finger at the senior partner the Social Democratic Alliance.

The Icelandic government's EU application has become such a mess that no one wants to be responisble for it and everyone points the finger at someone else.

Source:
Enginn vill bera ábyrgð á ESB-umsókninni (Heimssyn.is May 25, 2010)

Cast no shadow on Iceland's national holiday, thank you

The Sports and leisure council of the City of Reykjavík (ÍTR) today issued a resolution requesting the Icelandic government to see to it that a formal decision will not be taken on next June 17 to start accession negotiations with the European Union. On that day Icelanders celebrate their national holiday but on June 17, 1944 Iceland became an independent country. The European Council will hold its next meeting that same day and a decision on negotiations may be taken there. The resolution reads as following:

"The request is directed to the government of Iceland to see to it that a shadow will not be cast on celebrations of the national holiday of Icelanders with a decision to start accession negotiations between Iceland and the European Union on that day. This is a delicate issue and it should be pointed out that the majority of the Icelandic people are opposed to EU membership."

The ÍTR is a politically appointed council with representatives from all the political parties in Iceland and among other things responsible for the June 17 celebration in Reykjavík. Five out of six representatives supported the resolution. Only one rejected it, a representative from the ruling Social Democratic Alliance which is the only political party in Iceland that supports EU membership. The other representative of the social democrats in the ÍTR, however, initiated the resolution.

This is yet another token of how little support joining the EU has in Iceland. According to the last poll in Iceland 70 percent would reject membership in a referendum.

Source:
Varpi ekki skugga á 17. júní (Mbl.is May 21, 2010)

Withdraw the EU application say 75 percent

In an internet poll produced by the Icelandic radio station Bylgjan on May 6 some 75 percent said they wanted Iceland's application for membership of the European Union to be withdrawn. Of those 62 percent wanted the application to be withdrawn completely while 13 percent wanted it to be withdrawn and postponed. Only 25 percent said they were opposed to the idea of withdrawing the application.

Source:
Bylgjan

The EU application has no support in Iceland

Bjarni Benediktsson, the chairman of the conservative Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn), said at a meeting today with fellow partymembers that the current left-wing government had proven unable to advance its application for membership of the European Union. He said the government was stuck in a vicious circle when it came to the EU issue which it couldn't get out of.

Benediktsson, who's party leads the opposition, criticised the government for spending enourmous time, manpower and money on the application for EU membership despite the fact that the issue has no political leadership and doesn't have the support of the Icelandic people. Furthermore, he said there was no majority for membership in the Icelandic parliament and not even within the government itself.

Source:
Bjarni vill að landsfundi verði flýtt (Vísir.is April 17, 2010)

Further reading:
Does Iceland want to join the EU?
How serious is Iceland about joining the EU?