Iceland to Apply for EU Membership

The parliament of Iceland, the Althing, on Thursday voted in favor of a proposal to authorize the government to apply for membership of the European Union.

The result was 33 to 28 in favor of an EU application. Two MPs abstained.

A final decision on EU membership for Iceland will eventually depend on a referendum.
The result was broadly along party lines with all of the Social Democratic MPs voting for the resolution. The Social Democrats are the bigger of two coalition government parties.

The minority party in the coalition, the Left-Greens, voted mostly in favour, but a few Left-Green MPs voted against. The Left-Green party is opposed to EU membership, but the leader of the party, Mr. Steingrimur J. Sigfusson, finance minister, says it is important to resolve the "European question."

The vote follows a final round of marathon debates that have lasted for several days. It is expected that Iceland's application will be sent in time for it to be on the agenda of the EU foreign ministers' meeting on July 27th.

The vote took more than two hours as the Althing first had to vote on three amendment proposals by the opposition.

Iceland will put any agreement with the EU on membership to a referendum. 00:00:00




Title
00:00:05
General views of the debate (14 shots)
00:01:09




SOUNDBITE (Icelandic) by Asta R. Johannesdottir, Speaker of Althing (Parliament of Iceland): finally the voting will be cast and this is the last round on the whole bill, thus changed. The voting commences. Honorable members, have you all voted? (cutaway of the voting board) The voting is over and the bill has been approved with 33 votes. 28 are against, 2 abstain. The bill will be sent to the government as a resolution of the parlaiment. The agenda is closed.
00:02:19
SOUNDBITE (Icelandic) by Johanna Sigdurdardottir, Prime Minister (Social Democratic Party) of Iceland:
I'm very pleased with this outcome. I expected the margin to be closer but fortunately the margin is large
and that calls for a celebration. This is a historic moment and one of the most pleasant vote I have participated in as I think it will be of a benefit for the future of this nation.
00:02:41




END

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[1957Rotu]

Iceland are screwed financially. It makes perfect sense for them to join the EU and benefit from the safety net afforded by the European Central Bank. Ireland would be in a similar position to Iceland were it not for the fact that Ireland is a full member of both the EU and the Euro.

Well done Iceland for applying to the EU. They will help you recover from the current crisis you find yourselves in.

[mupptastic]

Norway and Swistzerland have to "live under the EU;s rules" and they are not members, they are in the silly position of paying into the budget while getting no say in it's spending, and adopting internal market ruels with no say in their drafting.

but that is both of their choices.

[pete1munchen]

Iceland won't get into the EU. If they don't agree to reimburse citizens of the UK and Netherlands money which went down with there dodgy banks then the UK and Holland will block the bid and they will be screwed.

[mzedong001]

1957 Rotu your crap is voted down for.

[mzedong001]

1957 your crap is voted down for.

[mzedong001]

If there are people out there who think they have faith in centralization of power , they don´t deserve to get something that is earned and which one is never born with and that is human rights.

If I was a shop owner I´d want to know whom I am doing bussiness with among those who enter my shop. It´s my shop , and it´s my bussiness.

[mzedong001]

Iceland can´t apply to membership of a collapsed structure.

Let´s just admit it. The entire structure of the European Union and it´s corpus is collapsed....it´s over. Bye bye EU.

[PesiCool]

Shiiit, I'm rebelling if we join the corrupt fucked up EU...

[Efteling4Ever]

"joining the EU will help restore it."

Why should WE restore it? Why don't you first stick to the Icesave deal.

[Efteling4Ever]

"greedy capitalism in the U.S."

I have a feeling your economy was mainly devastated by Icelandic greedy capitalism.

Can't go into global financing, lending and borrowing horrendous sums with an economy of 300.000 "villagers" to back this up.

The US may have a lot of debts but also have an economy of over 300.000.000 people to back this up. They are a blue whale with difficulties whereas you were a sardine pretending to be a blue whale.

[krislyttle]

Exactly!