It is unlikely anything important will happen in the Icesave issue before British elections take place this spring. That is the opinion of Icelandic Independence Party leader Bjarni Benediktsson following London meetings with three British parliamentary committees. He added that it is still extremely unclear what will come next in the trilateral dispute.
Icelandic delegates of the Althingi foreign affairs committee have been meeting in London this week in London with the British parliament’s foreign affairs and finance committees, as well as the UK-Iceland co-operation committee.
The purpose of the meetings was to broaden understanding of the varying points-of-view on Icesave in both countries and to improve personal tied between the parliaments of the two countries.
Committee head Arni Thor Sigurdsson told RUV that he and his colleagues had experienced lots of goodwill towards Iceland during their visit to London. Meanwhile, Bjarni Benediktsson said he got the impression the parliament in the UK seems to be pulling back from the Icesave issue and said that all three committees the Icelanders met believed that nothing will happen before the General Election due for 6th May.
Does anyone bekieve this is a Good Thing?
That depends on who gets elected and what policies they will have regarding the issue. And for who the good thing would be.
I believe the best thing would to get a ruling on the matter as soon as possible to settle the facts and then possibly negotiate on that authority.
I believe the best thing, as in most negotiations, is a solution where all parties are happy or fine with the result. It is called constructive negotiation in contrast to where one party try to “win” which is called a destructive negotiation.
Does anyone bekieve this is a Good Thing?
What, aside from Bjarni Benediktsson, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson & their parties?
You can’t make an omelette (force the government out) without breaking a few eggs (damaging the economy).
Delayed until 6 May 10 is default but still hoping for the best tripartite resolution all facts considered. No more hocus pocus. Just please be transparent.
Which law or international agreement or other stipulation or other agreement says the Iceland as a nation is obliged to reimburse the Dutch % English deposatitors. As far as I know the Icesave bank had all the permits required to operate a saving bank in these countries. I cannot figure out why a country is a guarantor for businessmen operating from Iceland. Could someone please tell us.
Vilhelm Franck, Tampere Finland
Here you go. A basic statement of both sides:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icesave_dispute#Deposit_insurance
The directive is 94/19/EC. You will not be able to interpret it correctly without a lawyer, who in turn will be able to give an opinion but will not be able to (honestly) conclusively say which way it would go in front of a judge.
To Vilhelm Franck
Regular contributors debated this topic extensively long ago, but the topic has again been resurrected and discussed in a current thread.
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/03/22/norway-pushing-to-break-imf-iceland-deadlock-over-icesave/
The issue commences in consequence to the below comment.
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/03/22/norway-pushing-to-break-imf-iceland-deadlock-over-icesave/#comment-132360
Gutted! I wrote another reply to Vilhelm once I saw that he is a lawyer, but it doesn’t seem to have made it.
Oh well. It was basically links to the Island.is document store:
http://www.island.is/endurreisn/stjornvold/adgerdir-stjornvalda/samantekt-adgerda/icesave-samningurinn/skjol-vegna-icesave-samningsins/
Have a look at “ECOFIN fundur og framhald hans” and “Lögfræðiálit”. About half of the docs are in Icelandic, half in English.