EU membership would shift control of Icelandic marine resources

Iceland would lose decision-making power over the protection of fish stocks and annual catch limits if it joined the European Union, mbl.is reports. Icelandic authorities would retain control only over allocating fishing rights among Icelandic vessels.

This is the conclusion of a 126-page legal opinion prepared by Gunnar Þór Pétursson, Hafsteinn Dan Kristjánsson and Margrét Einarsdóttir, law professors at Reykjavik University, at the request of Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir.

The opinion says the European Union holds sole and undivided authority over the conservation of living marine resources. Decisions on total allowable catches are made by the EU Council of Ministers rather than by individual member states.

It also says Iceland’s main potential safeguard against losing a share of its own fish stocks, the principle of relative stability, is not established in the EU treaties. Instead, it is set out in a regulation that the EU can amend unilaterally by qualified majority.

The professors’ conclusions largely match an opinion issued by the Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners this spring. That opinion said Iceland could not prevent the rule from being changed after joining the EU.

The legal opinion further states that no country has so far secured a permanent exemption from the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy. Norway, which negotiated membership in 1994, is also cited, although it rejected the agreement in a referendum.

Negotiating authority with non-EU countries over shared stocks such as mackerel, blue whiting and Norwegian-Icelandic herring would also move from Iceland to the European Union. Iceland currently negotiates directly with other coastal states over those stocks.

The opinion also discusses Iceland’s 25 percent limit on foreign ownership in the fishing industry. It describes the limit as an exemption from the free movement of capital and right of establishment under the European Economic Area Agreement, and says it is uncertain whether the exemption would remain unchanged after EU accession.

The EU’s negotiating position during Iceland’s accession talks, which began in 2010, stated that Iceland’s exemptions under the EEA Agreement could not be considered precedents in the membership negotiations. That could make it harder for Iceland to retain its current restrictions on foreign ownership.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said Iceland could still base its fisheries management system on the Icelandic quota system after joining the EU. However, the legal opinion qualifies this by saying that such authority would apply only to the domestic allocation of fishing rights, not to total allowable catches, which would be decided at EU level.