Iceland withdraws his candidacy to the EU – Onet.pl

Iceland withdraws his candidacy to the EU – Onet.pl

The decision was made after two years of the eurosceptic, center-right government, which promised to complete the process of discussion about Iceland’s accession to the EU started in 2009 – says AFP.

The decision Sveinsson government also announced the European Commission. “Iceland’s interests are better served to remain outside the EU (…) However, Iceland wants to maintain close cooperation with the European Union” – Foreign Ministry announced on its website.

Negotiations with the EU began in 2010, a coalition of Social Democrats and the Green Left, which won the last election on a wave of social protest after the outbreak of the financial crisis. Until the crisis in Iceland not been actually debate on accession, mainly due to the rejection of the Icelanders common EU fisheries policy.

However, the two center-right and eurosceptic parties that won the parliamentary elections in Iceland in April 2013, the Independence Party and the Progressive Party, announced shortly after the election that, under the arrangement for forming a new government agreed that it will conduct a referendum on . EU membership negotiations with the European Union and yet not be resumed.

centrist Progressive Party agricultural Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson is radically Anti-EU, and its coalition partner, the conservative, close business Independence Party is more divided on this issue and she has sought to organize a referendum on. accession to the EU. However, no plebiscite was held.

As a member of the purest water in the world, fishing approx. 2 million tons fish a year, Iceland is economically dependent on fishing; fish account for almost three-quarters of its exports. After accession to the EU would have to not only share their fishing grounds, but also to adapt to EU decision-largest fishing.

Opponents also fear the integration of domination and dependence of Iceland to the EU, because of the size and the historical experience of the island, which, although it regained its independence after World War I, it was only after World War II declared itself a republic and became independent of the Danes.