Fule plays down the magic of EU membership

Iceland

Iceland launched its membership talks with the European Union on Tuesday (27 July), one year after applying to join. Substantive negotiations will have to wait until the European Commission begins its assessment of Iceland's readiness in each of the 35 policy areas into which the talks are divided. Štefan Füle, the European commissioner for enlargement, said that this screening would begin in November and last until next summer, but that talks could start before the process was complete. 

It is widely expected that the negotiations will proceed briskly – but the likely obstacles are already visible. Iceland needs to settle claims by the Dutch and British governments over savings lost in the collapse of Icesave, an internet bank. Össur Skarphéðinsson, Iceland's foreign minister, called Icesave a “nuisance” and a “bilateral matter” that had no impact on his country's membership bid, but he also acknowledged that it might delay the talks because “everybody does not always play by the rules”. He blamed a recent drop in popular support in Iceland for EU membership on the actions of the UK and Dutch governments in the Icesave affair. Füle said he was “concerned” by the lack of support. Icelanders will have to approve EU membership in a referendum at the end of the negotiations.

A more fundamental issue is Iceland's fisheries policy, which is incompatible with the EU's Common Fisheries Policy. Skarphéðinsson told reporters after Tuesday's launch that Iceland's approach had prevented the “endemic overfishing” evident in other waters and that it could serve as a “model” for the EU's own policy.