Viðreisn founder warns against Iceland joining EU

In an opinion article published by Morgunblaðið, former MP and minister Guðni Ágústsson says engineer Friðrik Hansen Guðmundsson, one of the founders of the Viðreisn party, has stopped supporting Icelandic membership of the European Union.

Ágústsson compares Guðmundsson to the child in the story of the emperor’s new clothes, saying he has had the courage to point out what others in the “parade” have seen but have been unwilling to say publicly.

According to Ágústsson, Guðmundsson writes on his blog that he has changed his mind and no longer supports EU membership. Ágústsson hopes more people in Viðreisn will recognise what he describes as the consequences of membership and either step aside or vote against it in secret at the ballot box.

Ágústsson lists what he says would be the main consequences of joining the EU. Foreigners would be allowed to own 100 per cent of Icelandic fishing companies and fish-processing businesses, including their fishing quotas, he writes. Fishing and fish processing would move abroad, agriculture would cease in its current form and inexpensive agricultural products from Europe and South America would enter Iceland under free-trade agreements with the EU.

He also claims that Iceland’s food security would become very limited or disappear altogether. Pig farming would end, as would chicken and egg production. Dairy farming would continue in a changed form, sheep farming would survive in a modified form and vegetable production would largely disappear, he writes.

Ágústsson also refers to remarks by former President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and Carl Baudenbacher at a well-attended meeting in Sjálfstæðissalurinn. He says they discussed the transfer of Iceland’s sovereignty, which he claims would affect all aspects of the country’s independence, including legislative, judicial and executive power.

If voters support EU membership in the referendum, the government plans to conclude negotiations within 18 months, Ágústsson writes. He says Iceland’s resources would be placed under foreign control and that the country’s long-awaited sovereignty would also be surrendered.

He argues that agriculture would not survive but would instead be ruined, with entire sectors disappearing. Ágústsson concludes that people who examine the consequences will vote no in the referendum on August 29.