Iceland to hold vote on EU accession talks

Iceland’s new centre-right government has agreed to let ordinary voters decide whether accession talks with the European Union should continue.

The decision to freeze talks on joining the EU until a referendum was a central element in an agreement approved late on Tuesday (21 May) by the two parties that will make up the government.

The date of the referendum has not been set. Before the referendum, the government would submit a review of Iceland’s relationship with the EU to parliament, but the referendum would not be contingent on that review.

The outgoing left-wing government decided in January not to take political decisions related to the EU in the run-up to the elections, which were held on 27 April. However, lower-level, technical discussions continued.

The European Commission said yesterday that it is prepared to continue with the same dual-track approach unless the new government notifies it otherwise.

The short and generally-worded agreement among the coalition partners suggests that all talks will be halted.

Iceland began membership talks in 2010 and has made rapid progress in the accession process. It has sent the Commission its negotiating position on all but four of the 33 ‘chapters’ of EU law.

However, there has been no hint of a breakthrough on fisheries – the issue that is a touchstone for Icelandic voters.

The government will be headed by Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, the leader of the Progressive Party. At 38, he is the world’s youngest prime minister. Bjarni Benediktsson, the leader of the junior coalition party, the Independence Party, will hold the finance and economics portfolio.

The Independence Party won the popular vote, but the two parties each gained 19 seats in the 63-member parliament.

Independents will occupy five ministries, plus the position of speaker of parliament, while the Progressives will have four posts in cabinet, including the premiership.

Significantly, the Independence Party, the winner of every election between 1929 and 2009, traded away the two offices most closely related to the EU talks: the ministers of foreign affairs and fisheries will both be Progressives. The cabinet will be named today (23 May).