Better Out than In

Geir H. Haarde, the Icelandic Foreign Minister, met with his British colleague Jack Straw in London yesterday. During the meeting the two discussed the relationship between Iceland and the United Kingdom, the European Union and some other international issues. After the meeting Mr Haarde said it was especially interesting to hear that Mr Straw agreed with him that no special Icelandic interests required that Iceland join the EU. According to Mr Haarde, Mr Straw agreed that Icelanders were doing very well outside the EU. This is of course nothing new for Icelanders, but it is always nice to hear others confirm it. The funny thing is that the same Jack Straw on a number of occasions – before the French and the Dutch rejected the EU constitution – warned the British people not to reject the constitution because doing so would mean that Britain would become “isolated and weak in Europe.”

Are we to understand that different principles apply for Britain and Iceland? Of course not. Any country in Europe, or in the world, can do as well as Iceland and even better. But the EU is most definitely not the road to prosperity. Iceland is the wealthiest and most prosperous country in the world today after Norway. The reason for Iceland’s success is its independence, which has made it possible for the country to introduce radical economic reforms towards a liberalized economy, something which would never have been possible had the country been a member of the EU.

(Previously published in the Brussels Journal)

Straw admits Iceland has no special interests in joining the EU

Geir H. Haarde, the Icelandic Foreign Minister, met with his British colleague Jack Straw in the Birtish Foreign Ministry today (January 18). During the meeting the two discussed the relationship between Iceland and the United Kingdom, the European Union and various other international issues. Haarde said after the meeting it was especially interesting to hear that Straw agreed with him that no special Icelandic interests demanded that Iceland joined the EU. Haarde said furthermore that Straw said Icelanders were doing very well outside the EU and it was no necessity for Iceland to join the Union. Besides all the cost and the burden membership would mean for the country.

Well, this is of course nothing new for us in Iceland, but it's always nice to hear some top EU people confirm this :)

Source:
Morgunblaðið

One more sign...

One more sign of how the European Union is so not an issue in Iceland and is actually always becoming more and more a none-issue here. As a tradition the chairmen of the Icelandic political parties represented in the Icelandic parliament, the Althing, each write a detailed article in the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið on December 31 about the politics in Iceland in the last year. Only two of them so much as mentioned the EU. Geir H. Haarde, chairman of the Independence Party, only mentioned it once and then only in context with the WTO's Doha agenda. Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, chairman of the Socialdemocratic Alliance (the only Icelandic political party in favour of joining the EU although it has never dared to put the issue on its agenda), however, mentioned it a few times mainly complaining that there was no political will in Iceland to join the EU. She even went as far as insisting that the EU was something that could not be mentioned in the country. Well, this is not really like that, but it is nevertheless true that the EU is not really the most popular thing among Icelanders ;)