Fisheries may be one of the biggest stumbling blocks, as the EU Commission has now given green light for membership talks with Iceland.
“We will be applying the same criteria as are applied to any other country. There is no short cut,” said enlargement commissioner Stefan Füle while announcing the commission’s recommendation to move ahead with accession talks. He added that he expected that process to take “around 14 months”, provided that the member states support the inclusion in the union of the island nation, hard-hit by the global financial crisis.
Private savers in Great Britain and Holland lost huge amounts to failing Icelandic banks, and have so far been compensated with € 3.8 billions from their own governments. The UK and Dutch governments have in their turn reached a deal with their Icelandic colleagues to cover for it, a 40 percent-of-the-total-Icelandic-GDP deal that will be put forth for the heavily critical people in a referendum on March 6. That deal was still a matter for new negotiations a week before the referendum, where a negative answer is expected – hopes are that a new agreement would cancel the referendum.
Commissioner Füle said that there was no connection between those talks and the accession process, but stressed that the Commission keeps close watch on how Iceland manages to live up to its financial commitments.
As part of the European Economic Area trade bloc and the Schengen Agreement, the nation is also already integrated into the EU market and adheres to most EU laws.
The report from the Commission did however emphasize that the North Atlantic island nation of 320 000 will need to make ‘serious efforts’ to bring its laws in line with EU legislation, and identified fisheries, agriculture and financial services as key areas.
Iceland does not allow non-Icelanders to fish in its waters and restricts access to its ports to foreign vessels. Foreigners also cannot own more than a minority share in fishing companies, all restrictions that have to be done away with, according to the Union. Especially mackerel and blue whiting catches have been subjects to annual tug-of-wars between Icelandic and primarily British fishermen.
On their hand, the Icelanders depend on fisheries for some 40 percent of export earnings, employing 8 percent of the work force, and they often point to the fact that their waters have been much less stricken with overfishing than EU waters.
“We are the teacher here and the EU is the pupil, not the other way round”, Jon Baldvin, a former foreign minister and the man who led Iceland’s delegation during the formation of the European Economic Area, told the EUobserver newsweb.
“Iceland will never join if we have to allow access to our fishing stock. Icelanders will view this as nothing less than the arrival of the Spanish Armada”, he added.