The Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið reports today (October 8) that according to its sources there are growing worries in Brussels that the Icelandic application for membership of the European Union delivered this summer will meet the same fate as the Norwegian applications. Norway has twice applied to join the EU, in 1972 and again in 1994, but membership was on both occasion rejected in a referendum.
Hostility in Iceland towards EU membership has probably never been as much as now. This can both be seen from the public debate in the country as well as in repeated opinion polls over the last several months. According to Morgunblaðið the EU has people stationed in Iceland with the task of translating everything concerning the debate on the application which has led to these growing worries.