Farmers reject exploring EU membership, former minister argues

Farmers overwhelmingly rejected examining European Union membership, according to Guðni Ágústsson, a former member of Iceland’s parliament and government minister, writing in Morgunblaðið.

The Farmers’ Association commissioned experts to examine what EU membership would entail and to review how the European Union operates, as well as the experience of Finland and Sweden as member states. The report concluded that countries joining the EU must adopt its common agricultural policy and receive no permanent exemption, Ágústsson writes.

The report was presented at a special congress several days ago, where farmers were asked whether Iceland should “look into the package”. Fifty-two voted against the proposal and one in favour.

According to Ágústsson, the report showed that removing tariff protection and introducing freedom of imports, while banning direct payments to farmers that reduce consumer prices, would allow dairy and meat products from the EU to flood the Icelandic market.

He argues that Iceland’s strongest agricultural sectors, cattle farming and dairy production, would be undermined, while imported agricultural products would take their place. Icelandic agriculture would be sacrificed in almost every sector, he writes, including horticulture and greenhouse farming.

Ágústsson contrasts EU membership with the European Economic Area Agreement, which he says involved no commitments in agriculture or fisheries and was instead a major trade agreement for business. EU membership, he argues, would give European countries access to Iceland’s territorial waters and the right to buy fisheries companies, while destroying agriculture and eliminating entire farming sectors.

He also criticises Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, saying she had allowed Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir to persuade her to break her pre-election promises. He says the prime minister lacks political experience and has divided the country, while expressing hope that she listened to farmers and other people in rural Iceland during her recent tour of meetings.

Ágústsson describes Gunnarsdóttir’s proposal to hold a referendum on the public’s view of EU membership as an invitation to sacrifice Icelandic resources and pay tens of billions of Icelandic krónur in annual tax revenue to the EU.

He cites remarks made in 2013 by Timo Summa, described as the EU’s first ambassador to Iceland. At a meeting in Vestmannaeyjar, Summa said Icelanders were a European people, had fishing grounds that Europe urgently needed, possessed energy resources that Europe also needed and offered Europe a northern window towards the Arctic.

Ágústsson concludes that Iceland should not open what he calls a Pandora’s box, arguing that the consequences of EU membership could not easily be reversed.