The foreign ministers of the European Union decided yesterday to begin formal accession talks with Iceland.
The ministers were meeting in Brussels on the enlargement of the Union – a discussion which included Iceland’s membership application.
An Intergovernmental Conference between Iceland and the EU begins today and Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson will be in attendance.
The congress marks the start of the formal accession process but the next step, face-to-face negotiations at a governmental level, will not begin before next year.
Wilfried Martens, leader of the biggest EU political party, the European People’s Party with 73 member parties from 39 countries, said: “On behalf of the EPP, I warmly welcome today’s start of Iceland’s EU accession negations. Iceland’s accession will be important since it will strengthen the EU’s Nordic dimension and the European project at-large.”
“I believe that Iceland, with its longstanding democratic institutions and European traditions, will merit a place in the European Union family. Needless to say, the EPP will be following closely the accession negotiation process and we will also intensify our contacts with like-minded political actors and opinion-makers in Iceland,” Wilfried Martens added.
What? Nobody wants to comment? There are all the sceptics? :D
The free peoples of Icland should not even think to join the EU. It will loos a lot of it independence. Haw many votes you would have in the EU parlament something near to 1! So as a Swiss i can only advice to stay far away from the EU. The EU reminds us in switzerland and also many peoples in the EU to the former USSR, a big hungry Dino.
Sorry Mario, but you’re totally wrong. I’m also swiss, and I’ve never heard that the EU was like the USSR or a big hungry Dino (but maybe a teacher who screams when swiss people do bad things, like when they hide money of dictators or jew people in their banks…)
Today, Iceland, as Switzerland, should open his eyes and finally join the EU. Right now, at least 75% of the icelandic laws are european laws (and even more in Switzerland). And this percentage is going to increase, no doubt about it, so, instead of being out of the EU and just accepting their laws, it would be a thousand time smarter to be inside the institution and to participate to the creation of the new laws. Even if Iceland would have only one single vote (actually, it would be more) in the EU parliament, it would be better than to have no one…
“big hungry Dino ”
More like a hungry thief
NO EU, NO globalists plans. For free and independent Iceland. Do not believe promises.
Greetings from Lithuania, who knows what is to be in the empire.
@Clem you are right the left wing parties never said like that, but the peoples of switzerland more then 70 % are abselutly against the EU. That are facts! I am living in Switzerland. Now working in Austria. Also in Austria if “normal” peoples have to decide they would get out of the EU as fast as possible. It brings nothing to the folk only higher prices. And why they like switzerland to join. Because we have still money, we are better performing then the EU and we have our very good democraty. Eu is more a dictatorship leaded by bureucratists comparable to the former EU. Just now i read in the news that the EU cuts 1Billion from the small mountain farmers in Austria. That money should go to the large factory like farms in east europe. Do you like globalisation. It is funny the the left parties like it after all we been fighting against globalisation in former years. Are the left all old?
@Clem I forgot to add that my mother with jew blood is onlya alive because of switzerland. And with the swiss passport she was even able to go to the getto in warschau to help jews. Sorry to tell you that. And the factory in east germany was taken by the nazies and there was no money returned from the new german republic. facts of my family!
EU = USSR
All empires are the same.
You think that you connect to the EU on a voluntary basis? No, it is the occupation. No, this is not the occupation of arms, but of money and beautiful promises.
Tomas, cut the bull****… I am lithuanian as well! Lithuania joined the EU on the voluntary basis. If not, prove this to be wrong.
Lithuania joined as voting day supermarket Maxima has promised to give everyone who came to vote to give the washing powder and beer. Accession to the EU wanted to purchased Lithuanian government. Now Lithuanians are worse off than before joining, people emigrate en masse, as a war or during fever. If USSR failed to destroy the Lithuanian people, it seems that the EU is to succeed.
It is true that the Lithuanians went to vote for the EU just because the voting day Maxima supermarket has announced that those who vote will go for free beer and washing powder. Voting district distribute stickers to get a beer, they had to in shop. Has been a considerable number of stores. Now, the same beggar who voted for beer and the powder, curse the EU. Lithuanian population of whole families fleeing en masse from Lithuania as a time of war or plague. If so, and the Lithuanian people will soon disappear. Soviet Union did not destroy the nation, but it looks like it will destroy the EU.
We will see whether there is freedom of speech and democratic country and respect the opinion and it is not deleted.
Well, you should get your facts correctly. It’s not the EU destroying Lithuania but incompetent and corrupt Lithuanian goverment destroying the country by failing to invest EU billions wisely and by failing to get the full benefit out of being part of the biggest world market – the single European market etc. And by a way, without the EU Lithuania wouldn’t be doing any better anyway. So, better don’t cod the people who should be blamed for the mismanagement of the country.
And by a way, the fact that Lithuanian goverment asked Maxima for a help – isn’t the fault or some lie of the EU – this falls completely into the ambit of Lithuanian goverment. So, once again – not the EU should be blamed for some kind of lie but Lithuanian goverment.
>”NO EU, NO globalists plans ”
No the EU member ship and restricted EU customs union.
Yes to EFTA/EEA membership being part of the world and being able to trade freely with who ever wants to trade with us, and control our trade treaties directly with other nations.
>” Today, Iceland, as Switzerland, should open his eyes and finally join the EU. Right now, at least 75% of the icelandic laws are european laws.. ”
No, its less than 10% now. 75% is EUphile propoganda. The facts :
http://euobserver.com/15/28502 “Has Iceland really adopted two-thirds of EU legislation?”
” ..Until a few years ago, certain Icelanders in favour of joining the European Union on a regular basis claimed the same, that Iceland was adopting 70 and even up to 90 percent of EU laws through the EEA agreement. This claim was repeatedly put forward without being founded on any studies at all.
In the spring of 2005 research carried out by the EFTA [European Free Trade Association] secretariat in Brussels at the request of the Icelandic foreign ministry, however, revealed that only 6.5 percent of all EU legislation was subjected to the EEA agreement between 1994 (when it came into force) and 2004.
In March 2007 a report published by a special committee on Europe commissioned by the Icelandic prime minister, showed that some 2,500 pieces of EU legislation had been adopted in Iceland during the first decade of the EEA agreement. The study also found that about 22 percent of Icelandic laws passed by the parliament originated from the EU during the same period of time. ..”
You are completely naive if you do not understand that it is all dependent on the EU, the Lithuanian government is very suitable for the EU, it is useful for the EU because the EU is not required strong Lithuania, the EU needs a Lithuanian market, Iceland also need for EU imperialist reasons.
And who asked the Irish government to repeatedly rape his own people, that it is bound to vote for EU constitution?
@Fisy you are right, because in my country switzerland it is about 20% of the laws as we are also in the efta. In poor Austria, where i am in the moment it is more then 85% as i read in the newspapers. Norway as an EWR member should have also 70 over % But the EWR is dead. Again the EU is an artifical virtual buble like the second world in internet. It not exist in the heads of the peoples of the EU but in the heads of the leaders. It is just a big vacuum cleaner sucking the money of the ordinary peoples.
Welcome new posters including Mario Salomon to IceNews.
Mario Salomon wrote :
>EWR member should have also 70 over %
What is the EWR? Is it that a name in German for the EU or EFTA?
In Icelandic the EU is called the ESB — Evrópusambandið.
After the Lisbon treaty was rejected in Ireland, Ireland was provided with the excemtions the irish people were concerned with (excemption considering social things, abortion, taxes, military relations etc.). So, the second time they voted, they voted for the Treaty with those excemptions specially designed for the Ireland to address the reservations of the irish people. And, by a way, nobody forced the irish to vote YES – they could easily vote NO, as they did the first time. Do you have any proves that the irish people were forced to vote YES? And, by a way, Ireland is free to leave the Union any day it wants – and the remaining countries as well. So, you should take your demagogy about EU being USSR somewhere else.
The thing which surprises me most is that thanks to the EU you are able now to live and work legaly and free in Iceland. I bet in case of Lithuania not becoming the member of the EU you would be sitting in Lithuania unemployed and whinning about the stupid Lithuanian goverment which decided not to join the Union and to deny you a right to search for a job in Norway, Iceland etc. But that’s ok, that’s so lithuanian – to whinne about everything you can.
Lithuanians are not we nomadic gypsies, we want to live and work in homeland. When in 1990 Lithuania had the power, which is not marketed to state, but now, after 20 years would be a rich country. Her neighbor Belarus is the Head of State of its patriotic, then unemployment is less than 1 percent., then people do not understand how to buy second hand clothes, rummage rubbish. Sadly, only Lithuania regained independence, the political elite of the State sold the European Union.
Typical lithuanian mentality – before the independence for everything was blamed the USSR. After the independence for everything is blamed the EU. The world changes but not the lihuanian LOL
” The thing which surprises me most is that thanks to the EU you are able now to live and work legaly and free in Iceland. I bet in case of Lithuania not becoming the member of the EU you would be sitting in Lithuania unemployed and whinning about the stupid Lithuanian goverment which decided not to join the Union ”
Dont need to be a member of EU for that. Eastern states should have considered EFTA instead.
Iceland lets in EU nationals ( and other Nordic countries with looser restrictions ) because EFTA states like Iceland signed the EEA agreement.
( Switzerland did not sign EEA agreement but is EFTA state and is doing just fine. )
I am proud Lithuanian mentality. And the world goes wrong direction, similar that from democracy to world dictatorship.
“And the world goes wrong direction, similar that from democracy to world dictatorship.”
LOL
Do you even know how many countries were considered democracy 20 years ago – and how many are considered now? I bet you don’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be making these kind of “empty” phrases…
It cost enough to be part of EEA for Norway Iceland and Liechtenstein already.
Why we would any rational people agree to deals like this ? I guess it is because the politicians do decide from they nice chairs in nice office in some capital city some where.
( Except in Liechtenstein where they ahve really good local democracy thanks to actions of Hans-Adam II ideas. )
http://euobserver.com/9/30555
I think that we should let icelandic people the choise to join or not the EU. As a french an living near borderlines with other countries EU is great for trading with facilities
“And the world goes wrong direction, similar that from democracy to world dictatorship.”
This is one of the main reasons why Iceland will never join the EU,
another reason is the poor and rapidly deteriorating state of the EU economy, Greece is heading into bankruptcy, Spain Portugal and Ireland are in serious trouble, just like the Euro.
the EU can not manage their economy, fishing stocks, or anything else for that matter.
there is nothing attractive about the EU, nothing at all.
And this Beer/Washing powder bribe just illustrates once again how hopeless this EU circus is.
The possibility of EU memebership is very unlikely to say the least,
To do that we would have to change the constitution to allow the surrender of our independence and natural resouces, that change would have to be passed trough parliament and signed into law by the president, if the public opposes they can demand a referendum,
if the constitution is to be changed general elections must be held
no changes are valid until after the elections,
the social democrats(only party that supports EU entry) will not be in the next gov,
then there will be a referendum on wether or not to accept the deal the EU offers,
then there is the icesave argument, UK will, if Cameron keeps his word, block Iceland from entering the EU unless the icesave argument is settled, and the same is likely to apply to the NL,
that argument will probably end up in court.
Not only beer and washing powder. It was decided that, before the accession of the media did not write any negative things about the EU. Lithuanian media, received the money, wrote only about the benefits of Lithuania will, if joining the EU. EU opponents have no money, was able to reach the public. There’s a lot of other breaches of democracy that took place before the referendum and the referendum.
” Except in Liechtenstein where they ahve really good local democracy thanks to actions of Hans-Adam II ideas. )”
I hope you are being ironic. Liechtenstein is basically an anachronistic monarchy: together with Monaco it is the only place in Europe where the prince decides everything….and most of the locals accept it because they enjoy a high standard of living.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Liechtenstein
‘ Prince Hans Adam II is the current head of state. His constitutional powers include the power to veto any legislation, to be used at his discretion, as well as the dissolution of the parliament (this may be subject to a referendum). He represents the state vis-à-vis foreign states. He signs international treaties either in person or delegates this function to a plenipotentiary. Some treaties under international law only become valid when they have been ratified by Parliament. On the basis of the names put forward by Parliament, the Prince nominates the government, district and high court judges, the judges of the Supreme Court, and the presidents and their deputies of the Constitutional Court and of the Administrative Court of Appeal.[2] The Prince’s other authorities include exercising the right to mitigate and commute punishments that have been imposed with legal force and the abolition — i.e., the dismissal — of investigations that have been initiated. All judgments are issued in the name of the Prince.’
So he can even interfere in criminal proceedings….meaning that his power exceeds that of an (elected) president by far.
To give one example of the power of the Liechtenstein royals; Liechtenstein did not have diplomatic relations with Czechoslovakia because the royals where pissed about the fact that some of their property in that country had been confiscated.
Axel i completely agree with you as a swiss! First if joining that club we would have to drop our democratiy. our Sozialist Parties with help of the middle parties already agrred with open boarders to the EU for workers. Since that we are flooded by qualified and unqualified, mostly germans, up to 100.000 a year. It shows that a lot swiss over 45 not getting anymore a job. Also the young starters. Secondly our incomes are dropping up to 20-30%. Socialist will say it is not true! But that are the facts. Houseprices are unpayable in Zürich for normal employees since that immigration has started. Also in other cities swiss are forced to go to the subherbs. We are a small country but our population has increased from 5.9million to nearly 8million. Not because of sitzerland great nitelive but because of migration.
Axel and Ema if we want to look to some country about democracy we should not be looking to EU, or even to the Norway Left Green party for ideas like our useless Steingrímur J and Johanna do.
Instead consider look into ideas of Douglas Carswell ( UK MP ) and Danial Hannan ( UK MEP) local democracy ideas that are now being implemented in UK by Cameron government :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plan-Twelve-Months-Renew-Britain/dp/0955979900
http://www.talkcarswell.com/
And reining Prince Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein ideas ( they are about local democracy and in his book he has local models for both republic and monarchy ).
See his book The State in the Third Millennium :
http://www.amazon.com/State-Third-Millennium-Prince-Hans-Adam/dp/3905881047
You may think it strange that a monarch is writing a book about local democracy but that is what the March 16 2003 vote on constituional reform Liechtenstein was about ( as explained in details in the book ) it was about strengenthing local democracy.
This ideas are so the opposite of the EU centralizing power ideas — and ideas of Social Democrats here in Iceland that do have no other idea really than joining the EU — not that they have the support and mandate to do it here because they have of course not given good reasons for Iceland to move from EFTA to join EU :
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/07/02/icelanders-in-the-dark-over-eu-pros-and-cons/#comment-196959
*we should not be looking to EU commission or parliament or other institution existing or made as part of EU.
The goverment’s position was pro European, so that was very natural that it campaigned for the membership. Those who were against, could campaign against the membership. Do you know any cases that it was forbidden to campaign against the membership or that those who wanted to campaign against were denyed TV, the press etc.?
as I believe the true icelandic spirit will not survive in EU – I can understand it’s worth trying under a finacial crisis – but does the icelandic population – well not a very large one – really wan’t to surrender for ever
To get into the TV, newspapers, internet portals, you must have money, the EU’s opponents did not have the money.
Niels says:
>I hope you are being ironic. Liechtenstein is basically an anachronistic monarchy: together with Monaco it is the only place in Europe where the prince decides everything….and most of the locals accept it because they enjoy a high standard of living.
As tends happen here at IceNews my other reply giving details was posted before you reply was moderated to be readable.
No irony. Liechtenstein is a principality but you really must look into in more details. Local democracy is very strong in Liechtenstein *because* of Hans-Adam II ideas.
They do have stonger local democracy than even Switzerland.
@Fisy,
Thx for the link to Amazon but being a greedy dutchman I am a bit reluctant to spend 37,46 USD to make a man who is already one of the wealthiest persons in the world even richer :-)
Joking aside, please have a look at the final lines of my previous quote from wikipedia:
“The Prince’s other authorities include exercising the right to mitigate and commute punishments that have been imposed with legal force and the abolition — i.e., the dismissal — of investigations that have been initiated. All judgments are issued in the name of the Prince.’
This means that the prince can interfere with legal proceedings, a very serious thing which does not exist in other european monarchies. This man has not even been elected!
I would also like to mention that Liechtenstein’s efforts to stay away from the EU are not just based on fears that the undemocratic EU will destroy the democratic structure of Liechtenstein: it is mostly fear that the country will have to give up its tax secret.
Harbouring criminal money is the main source of wealth of both country and prince (who is the owner of the biggest bank in his country).
Recently Germany has put a lot of pressure on Liechtenstein because it is helping rich germans to avoid taxes.
I would also like to mention that untill a few years ago the prince did not allow his subjects to visit Czechoslovakia.
Reason: the prince was pissed because the authorities in that country had confiscated one of his castles after WW2.
This country is just not a good example of democracy.
>Recently Germany has put a lot of pressure on Liechtenstein because it is helping rich germans to avoid taxes.
It seems that tax avoidance and giving advice on that is now a crime in Germany. But paying a thief millions of EUR for clearly stolen information is not.
If a country has proof of tax avasion that one thing. But avoidance should always be prefectly legal. If taxes are too high then people avoid them. If there are loop holes then close them but avoidance is and should be perfecrtly legal.
“It seems that tax avoidance and giving advice on that is now a crime in Germany. But paying a thief millions of EUR for clearly stolen information is not.”
They are catching people for tax evasion, which has always been a crime.
When you have a contract, if its illegal, it not enforcable. Following that, if you are committing a crime you have no legal right to hide it. So taking, and selling information about criminal activity is not criminal.
Nice to see you taking the side of banking criminals, Fishy.
>”Thx for the link to Amazon but being a greedy dutchman I am a bit reluctant to spend 37,46 USD ”
I will save you that and once I get some time give you some fair use quotes from the book then you will understand why his ideas are worth looking into if you care about localism and the citizen centric democracy.
>”When you have a contract, if its illegal, it not enforcable. Following that, if you are committing a crime you have no legal right to hide it. So taking, and selling information about criminal activity is not criminal.”
I don’t even understand what you are talking about there Peter.
The German Federal Intelligence Service ( BND ) did a deal and the Federal Ministry of Finance paid a thief millions of EUR for stolen goods.
Do you now seen the deep irony that Germans wont co-operate with request from
Liechtenstein for Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement over the theft.
” Concerns have been voiced that the actions taken by BND were outside the agency’s national security (and constitutional) remit, with attention also focusing on the wider ethical debate as to whether BND was justified in paying a €4m bribe to a bank official in a foreign country (with financing and approval from both the German chancellery and finance ministry).
In March 2009 Germany announced that it will not grant judicial assistance to Liechtenstein in the prosecution of the assumed perpetrator, claiming Ordre public overrides its duty to do so under the European Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement. ”
Yet this is exactly the criticism given to Liechtenstein. Sheer hypocracy from German Financial Minister here.
The EU is poison to all free peoples. For Gods sake please don’t let your Government con you into joining. Carry on protesting!