N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
Island’s NO to even accession talks is a major setback for the richer EU member states, the net contributors to the ever-expanding astronomical EU budget.
For the first time since the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995, a net contributor would have joined while the EU waiting room for candidate member states is crowded with poor countries like Albania, Montenegro, Ukraine, who after accession can count on billions in aid in exchange for a minimal contribution.
Reykjavik could have been a potential ally in the desire of more wealthy member states like Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and some Scandinavian countries, to drastically reform the EU budget and care more about transparency, innovation and free trade.
The Icelanders choose for a beneficial status quo. Their country benefits of the Schengen border-free zone and, as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), of the EU internal market. At the same time Iceland has a free hand to finalise its own trade agreements, as it did with i.a. China and keeps control over its fishing grounds and agriculture, free from EU regulation and interfering.
(In defence terms: Iceland is a member of NATO, has no army but keeps its borders open for NATO allies, and has a defence agreement with the US.)
