EU agrees Iceland negotiating rules, talks to start Tuesday

Jul 26, 2010, 21:09 GMT

   Brussels - Iceland cleared the last hurdle to starting membership talks with the European Union on Monday, as the bloc's foreign ministers approved the framework rules for talks.

   Iceland applied for EU membership last year in the wake of its spectacular banking implosion. The move won narrow political support at the time, but domestic public opinion on remains sceptical.

   EU foreign ministers at their last formal meeting before the summer break 'adopted the general EU position, including the negotiating framework, with a view to the opening of accession negotiations with Iceland,' an official statement said.

   The first round of talks is to be held on Tuesday. However, diplomats said that those would be a formality and would not open technical talks on any of the 35 subjects, or so-called 'chapters', on which Iceland will have to bring its laws into line with EU standards.

   Diplomats say that the process could take some 12-18 months, with control over Iceland's fisheries expected to be the most controversial point.

   Iceland is already a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the Schengen border-free zone, meaning that many of its laws are already in line with EU standards.

   But Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, stressed that all Iceland's laws would need 'clear scrutiny and good analysis.'

He mentioned the environment, whale-hunting, and the financial sector and the fallout from the collapse of online bank Icesave as potentially thorny issues.

Britain and the Netherlands want to be refunded for the billions of euros they handed out in compensation to their own citizens who lost their deposits as a result of Icesave's bankruptcy.

   The matter is not formally part of EU talks, but effectively remains an accession test as fulfillment of EFTA rules is necessary to qualify for EU membership, and those EFTA rules oblige Iceland to pay back the British and Dutch governments.

   Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country strongly backs the Icelandic bid, said that the disagreements over fisheries are 'somewhat less than they were a couple of years ago.'

Vanackere said 'some' of his colleagues 'insisted a lot on the fact that this Iceland negotiation should give a positive impetus to the whole of the enlargement process.'

That suggested there was a degree of concern that Turkey and other EU-hopefuls in the Balkans could be left behind as the spotlight turns on richer, easier-to-integrate Reykjavik.

But Vanackere tried to dispel those fears, as he vowed that Iceland would be subject to 'exactly the same kind of scrutiny and seriousness as any other candidate.'

Belgium's top diplomat said the low level of EU support among Icelanders, who have to approve accession terms at the end of the negotiations, was raised during ministers' discussions on Monday.

'I don't have the impression from the opinion polls that the Icelanders themselves are very favourable: that's the problem,' France's EU Minister, Pierre Lellouche, said before the meeting.

   The number of those opposed to EU membership rose to 60 per cent in June, up from 54 per cent in November, according to a Capacent Gallup poll published earlier this month by Iceland's state broadcaster, RUV.

'We must take opinions into consideration, but we must also have the courage to communicate the interest for the population both on the European and Icelandic side to proceed,' said Vanackere.