冰岛周六就恢复加入欧盟谈判举行全民公投

Saturday, the nation of Iceland will hold a national referendum on whether or not to resume membership talks with the European Union. Membership negotiations previously began in 2009, but were put on ice in 2013. I'm gonna You planned yesterday. I'm gonna leave that one right there. Alright. The latest polling data shows the country is split almost down the middle with 53% of people planning to vote yes and 47 planning to vote no as Iceland weighs geopolitical pressure with a long history of independence.

We talked to Ingles Sigfusson. He's a correspondent at RUV Iceland's National Broadcasting Service about why now, why the country is considering this. Well, it was actually considered a decade ago Iceland applied to join, and then after having closed a few chapters on accession talks, sort of decided, we're gonna take up a pause and see what happens. On one hand, it's because the two out of the three coalition parties in in government right now are pro EU and want to join.

Think it's a good move for Iceland and have campaigned on it and are sort of fulfilling their campaign promise. The other is sort of I guess it has to do with where things are going in the world even if it's not a huge part of the public discussion. Things are changing around Iceland. We're in the middle of the so called the GI UK gap. That is the part of the sea where Russia would need to get through to do anything in the North Atlantic.

Let's say, start bugging you guys on the East Coast Of The US. We've also seen what Trump president Trump was talking about in Greenland. The Arctic is opening up. That's changing the economics of the area. It's also changing just the security and defense discussion. So those are factors perhaps more for the books of politicians and and sort of the the the chartering classes, if you will, than for the general public.

But those are sort of the elements that are on the side of those who wanna join are important. It seems to me you referenced it a little bit, but the the part that people maybe aren't saying out loud as much is in the current era of uncertainty and uncertain economic policy, especially coming from Washington, are countries like Iceland looking at the EU block as some more insurance if they have you know, if the president wakes up and decides he wants to change tariffs, on Icelandic goods or or change regulations, do you have better negotiating powers or safety in numbers?

I mean, I think that's certainly part of the discussion. If you look at a small country like Iceland, we sort of historically even if we're fronting fronting members of NATO and have had a bilateral defense agreement with The US since 1951, we've always played that small power card when we needed to. We also negotiated with the Soviet Union when it was in our advantage. But things have changed. You're quite right. And it's no.

It's sort of public policy that we should have. I think they took the the the wording is more pillars to sort of lean on when it comes to security and defense. That's not to say that people are dissing The US. They're the politicians here are making quite sure that they don't say anything that might rub anyone the wrong way of on that side of the Atlantic. But it's certainly I mean, things have changed, and then you need to change.

You will need to figure out how you have guarantees to the extent that such a thing exists. You are currently not on the EU. Is that something that would change? And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the EU has said that if you vote yes to join, this could potentially be done and wrapped up within the year. Is that is that reasonable? Is that even feasible? I mean, people have talked about a year or two. So Okay. We're members of the, European economic area, which means Poland, Norway, Liechtenstein, few other countries are part of this area that is sort of outside the EU, but still accepts I mean, it depends on how you count it, but up to 70% of EU law anyway, remember of the free trade area.

So we're sort of in to a large extent, but without a vote. So that is what would potentially change with with joining. That is sort of the big deal, what would change. And, of course, then there's a talk of what would we be giving up if we join. Well, that's what I was gonna ask you. It seems to me like you you did have the best of both worlds because you had the independence. I mean, people look at Brexit. People complain about the clunkiness of the EU and the bureaucracy.

Is it getting to a point where nations like Iceland are more willing to give up some of that independence and some of that freedom for the protection of these larger trading blocks and economic unions because, well, because of what's happening in Washington? I think that's core that's really the heart of the debate here. That's the core. You know, what are we giving? What are we gaining? Independence and sovereignty are very big for the people sort of that are against joining the EU.

They fear giving up power to a centralized great bureaucracy in Brussels, and that will have virtually no say in how things are managed as a tiny nation. Fisheries also being a big part of it sort of goes to how we manage the fishery stocks in the ocean around Iceland. But, yes, I mean, what is to be gained? What has to to be to be given up? Of course, parts of the sovereignty would be given up and returned for some benefits.

It's also fairly likely or almost certain that Iceland would pay more into the common EU funds than we would receive as cash for donations or or subventions or whatnot. But it's a very complex arithmetic, isn't it? I mean, what are you paying? What are you giving up? And what are you getting in the current? It's important to say that this referendum is actually only about whether we have accession talks with the EU, whether we talk it to the EU about what would it look like if we were to join.

And then if that though if it's a yes now in August, we'll have those talks for a couple of years. And then at the end of those negotiations, there will be a second referendum to say, do we actually like the deal or not? So in the end, they'll come down to the public either now or then.