Iceland's dicey EU membership

The EU Commission will meet on Wednesday in Brussels to discuss EU accession for Iceland. The Blog Der Nachbar argues that only two things could throw a wrench in the works: "The first is the angry Dutch and British who insist on getting back the 3.8 billion euros they lost when Landsbanki's online subsidiary Icesave collapsed. The problem is that the Icelanders see no reason why they should pay back the money, seeing as it wasn't them but a few bankers who incurred the losses. The second problem is more enduring. ... The Icelanders have a 200-nautical-mile fishing zone in the Atlantic totalling 760,000 square kilometres. ... According to EU law this would become part of the EU's territorial waters. ... The Norwegians stopped two fully-negotiated membership processes with referendums in 1972 and 1994. Here, too, fishing rights played a decisive role."

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Norway, » Europe, » Iceland

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, February 23, 2010