The sudden refusal of
"The doors remain open for Iceland" - the EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic announced as
It seemed like the EU was not so much surprised by this move which became a moment of perplexity. Although taking into account nowadays’ political, economic and social hardships that the Union is facing with Greece, Great Britain, France, Italy and the Eastern members, Icelands’ move was natural from the point of self-defense. So can this move be named another wake-up call for the European Union?
First, let us get back to the roots. Being already a member of European Economic Area (EEA) since 1970, associated member since 1994 and a member of Schengen zone since 2001,
From 2008-2011 strengthening of the financial crisis and instability of national currency forced the nation to start thinking about joining the euro. However, in order to become a eurozone member a country should first of all be an EU member. It seems that today
The fact is that
By that time the new government froze the accession talks in 2013, 27 of the 35 legislative chapters had been opened and 11 concluded. But disputes remained on several issues, mainly those regarding agriculture and fisheries. Common Fisheries Policy was always a continued sticking point between
According to surveys conducted by Eurobarometer, by the time of the start of official negotiations 54% of the population rejected
In a way, the aforementioned could become an opportunity for the EU, however the bureaucracy, as in many other cases became an obstacle. Could this be considered a win-win situation? At the times of negotiations it could, but now it is definitely not the case. As the country’s Foreign Minister, Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson wrote on his website "
According to January, 2014 poll, 67.5% of Icelanders support holding a referendum on whether to continue accession negotiations, or not. While another poll of February, 2015 showed that 82% are in favour of holding the referendum. In February, the governing parties agreed to formally withdraw the membership application, without first holding a referendum on the matter, and submitted a bill to Althing (Icelandic parliament) seeking their approval for this move.
Under Icelandic law, it is not the Government but the Parliament which decides to end negotiations. That is why when Foreign Minister announced that he had sent a letter to the EU on withdrawing the application for membership, without the approval of the Althing, the European Union stated that
It is worth mentioning that in EU history there are cases of withdrawing or rejecting the accession talks:
Taking into consideration all these, we must assume that in order to annul official membership negotiations the country needs to hold a public referendum, reflecting the will of the population. In this case taking into account the data of the Eurobarometer starting from the year the country launched its negotiations, the outcome of the referendum is very much likely to be for annulling the continuation of negotiations.
It is important to stress the fact that in case of success this may become a bad precedent for today’s official candidates (
On the other hand a small percentage of the people for Iceland's EU membership tries to make its voice heard: after the government dropped the membership negotiations some 7,000 Icelanders took the streets of
Since coming into power in 2013,
As for today, it seems like there is nothing left for the Union except naming this announcement a sovereign decision of