11/13/2010

Growing EU division in the Icelandic government

There seem to be growing divisions in the Icelandic government over the application for membership of the European Union delivered in the summer of 2009. Today the Minister of Justice, Ögmundur Jónasson, (from the Left Green Movement) says in an article in the Icelandic daily Morgunblaðið that he wants the accession negotiations to be concluded in two months time and the referendum to take place in the wake of that.

Jónasson also says in the article that this is possible if the accession process will be stripped down to "real negotiations" as he phrased it with no alignment to EU laws and administration as the EU demands alongside the talks. Jónasson voted in favour of the EU application in 2009 despite being opposed to membership. In a media interview today he said that he did not vote in favour of an alignment of Iceland to EU demands.

Source:
Vill ljúka aðildaviðræðum á tveimur mánuðum (Vísir.is November 13, 2010)