According to the latest news in Iceland Davíð Oddsson, the current Prime Minister, will become Foreign Minister on the 15th of September when Halldór Ásgrímsson, the current Foreign Minister, will become Prime Minister.After the last parliament elections in Iceland in May 2003 the Independence Party and the Progress Party renewed their cooperation and formed a new government. One of the things the parties agreed upon was that the coming September 15 the leader of the Progress Party, Mr. Ásgrímsson, would become Prime Minister instead of Mr. Oddsson, the leader of the Independence Party. However, it was not clear until now what the latter one would do after stepping down as Prime Minister.
This is expected to mean among other things that the interest of Icelandic authorities in joining the European Union (which is very little) may reduce since Mr. Oddsson is far more opposed to membership than his predecessor in the office of Foreign Minister.