Iceland Lawmakers Vote for Opening EU Accession Talks

Source: Bloomberg

Icelandic lawmakers gave the go- ahead to membership talks with the European Union, fulfilling Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir’s election pledge to move the island closer to accession.

Lawmakers approved the resolution by 33 votes to 28 in the 63-member parliament. The Social Democrat-led government will send its application to a meeting of EU foreign ministers on July 27. If an agreement is reached with the bloc, the government will hold a national referendum on membership.

The Social Democrats, who won April 25 elections, are targeting EU membership as a way out of the economic crisis that followed the failure of the island’s financial system and the collapse of its currency.
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Iceland will now send a letter to the EU asking for accession talks, said Hrannar Arnarsson, political advisor to Sigurdardottir, by phone from Reykjavik. “That letter will be sent as early as next week and hopefully the EU will have its package ready for Iceland by the end of the year.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=ax3WP4pFQeDo

The fishing industry (huge there, of course) is resisting because they're afraid to come under the more restrictive (and more sensible) EU regulations, but the reality is that a tiny country like that, which had nearly its entire economy kicked out from under it, can't afford its own currency and economic autonomy. I have a lot of Icelandic friends, so I'm glad to hear this for their sakes.