Icelanders Are Increasingly Less Supportive of Joining the EU
As the publication cited below shows, public debate in Iceland regarding the resumption of EU accession negotiations has revealed two unequal camps: a small group of government officials advocating for joining the ailing political and economic bloc, and broad public circles recognizing the catastrophic nature of this decision for a small, still nation-state located on the border between two continents.
BACKGROUNDIcelanders Are Considering Whether to Stick Their Heads Into the EU’s Mouth
Judging by the Icelandic press, a meaningful dialogue, with the obligatory arguments and counterarguments substantively outlining the benefits and risks of this fateful decision for the country, has never begun and resembles a conversation between the deaf and the mute.
Government officials have yet to offer a convincing argument for allowing a country with a population a little larger than Espoo, a city in the Helsinki metropolitan area, to join a union of nearly half a billion people, with a dysfunctional economy and finances, a stifling Brussels bureaucracy, crumbling democratic institutions, and a mindless immigration policy.
In fact, Icelandic authorities are mysteriously pretending to know “something” unknown to the people of the country, which is why they advocate joining what is obvious to an impartial observer is the sinking ship of the European Union.
The ongoing global transition, the formation of a new architecture of global relations suggests that this mysterious “something” signifies the urgent need for Iceland to become part of a larger, inedible whole, one that even a hungry American grizzly bear would not dare open its jaws to fill its belly.
Why not speak out about this directly in an honest and open public debate? Or do the Icelandic authorities consider their people incapable of understanding this open secret and consider Icelanders idiots, as the author of the cited publication believes?
The other camp, represented by business circles with first-hand knowledge of the catastrophic state of affairs in the European Union, politicians, and representatives of public organizations, believes that Icelanders are being led to drown in the European swamp, just as Nils led the rats out of Glimminge Castle with a magic flute and drowned them.
As the cited publication suggests, the lack of compelling arguments from government officials and the generally negative attitude toward the failed project from businessmen and the public is tilting public opinion toward abandoning the resumption of EU accession negotiations.
This development gives hope that in 50–100 years Iceland will no longer be spoken of in the past tense and will continue to exist as a small but successful and forward-looking state that has preserved its unique language, culture, and ethnicity.
Growing Number of Opponents to EU Accession
According to a Gallup poll conducted by Viðskiptablaðis, 54% of those who took a position are opposed to Iceland joining the European Union. This opposition is growing from survey to survey.
Obviously, this majority will say no in the referendum to be held in August. Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir essentially calls this majority idiots in Morgunblaðið this week:
“Saying no is not an impartial decision. It involves rejecting further information about one of the nation’s greatest interests.”
The large number who will say no to the question of whether Iceland should continue accession negotiations with the European Union are not doing so out of ignorance. They do so precisely because they know what the issue is about—it is about adapting to the principles of European integration. They are fully aware that this is not some kind of exploratory negotiation but an assessment process of whether the Icelandic state can adapt to EU rules with the aim of becoming a member state.
All information about the process is available.
In this context, it is worth noting that recent surveys conducted by the Confederation of Icelandic Employers and the Confederation of Icelandic Industries among their members show growing opposition to Iceland’s possible membership of the European Union. This is particularly noteworthy.
Those who lead companies in these organizations are not refusing to provide any information, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs alludes to. These are people who run companies in this country, pay taxes and fulfill obligations, and know full well what is hidden in the package. These are, for example, people who work and run companies that are in daily contact with European companies and probably know better what membership in the European Union entails than those who have had a job sitting in on-the-ground meetings in Brussels for decades at the expense of the taxpayers of this country.
These people are fully aware of how the competitiveness of European companies has been lost in many ways in recent decades, among other things due to the regulatory bureaucracy in Brussels, and see no advantage in fully adapting to it.
The accession negotiations are not a journey of uncertainty. Everyone knows what happened when those negotiations collapsed at the time. It was not possible to open important chapters in the negotiations on fisheries, agriculture and home affairs because Iceland did not meet the EU conditions. The government has not been able to explain what has actually changed in these areas since then.
In addition, it is worth bearing in mind that one of the issues raised in those accession negotiations was that the Icelandic administration was barely capable of meeting all the obligations that full membership of the EU entails. It is difficult to see that further administrative activity, with the associated costs for taxpayers, is what Icelandic society needs today.
In reality, this European journey of the government is incomprehensible. There is no majority in favor of membership of the European Union in the Althingi. There is no consensus on membership, even within the government. The business community is not interested in membership.
The government is facing an acute economic crisis. The wheels of the economy are slowing down, inflation is persistent and unemployment is increasing at the same time as there are tremors in the global economy due to the conflicts in the Persian Gulf. The solution to these problems cannot be found in Brussels, and in fact it is a matter of concern that someone would think that it is now right to let the administration spend all its energy on negotiating with the EU for the next few years under such circumstances.
Source: VB (in Icelandic)
