Icelandic farmers reject EU membership and renewed talks

The Icelandic Farmers’ Association’s Farmers’ Congress has rejected Iceland’s membership of the European Union and the resumption of accession talks, mbl.is reports. The resolution was approved by a decisive majority at an extraordinary congress in Reykjavík on Friday.

Of the 55 delegates who voted electronically, 52 supported the resolution, or 94.55 per cent. One voted against it, while two abstained.

The resolution states that Icelandic agriculture would be best served outside the EU’s common agricultural policy. It argues that Icelandic farmers would need broad and permanent exemptions and special arrangements from EU regulations if Iceland joined the bloc.

It also notes that the EU’s general principle is for member states to adopt and enforce the bloc’s regulatory framework in full. Exemptions and special arrangements are exceptions and must, among other things, comply with the objectives of the internal market and the main principles of the relevant policy.

The congress says no EU member state has received an exemption allowing it to remain outside the common agricultural policy, nor has any state secured exemptions so broad and permanent that they would amount to staying outside the policy.

It therefore considers the chances of Iceland negotiating arrangements that would allow its agriculture to remain largely outside the policy’s framework to be negligible. The congress also says accession talks cannot be separated from the broader question of membership, as restarting negotiations would mean beginning a process towards EU membership.

The resolution is based on a report by an inter-congress committee of the Icelandic Farmers’ Association, titled Icelandic agriculture and possible EU membership, published on 6 August.