Foreign minister rejects calls to withdraw EU application

Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir has rejected calls to formally withdraw Iceland’s application to join the European Union, telling mbl.is that doing so could make any future membership process longer and more difficult.

Opposition leaders have demanded that the application, submitted in 2009, be withdrawn following the outcome of the referendum held over the weekend.

Gunnarsdóttir said it was clear that the current government would not reopen negotiations with the EU. She discussed the situation with Alþingi’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday.

“The message conveyed by the question was not to restart negotiations. We respect that,” she said.

The minister also said she would submit Protocol 35 to parliament this autumn. She described it as the most cautious possible approach to strengthening the European Economic Area agreement and ensuring that weaknesses in Iceland could not be used against it.

Gunnarsdóttir said she believed the proposal had some support outside the government, noting that the leader of the Independence Party had previously delivered a strong speech in favour of the protocol. On that occasion, the party leader said the Independence Party would support the EEA agreement and viewed the protocol as important to protecting it.

Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, leader of the Centre Party and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had not sensed during the meeting that the government understood that Icelanders wanted to govern their own affairs.

Gunnarsdóttir suggested over the weekend that Sigmundur should be the primary sponsor of a resolution on Protocol 35. He said the suggestion had been a joke and a response to the uncomfortable situation in which the government now found itself.

“If the response to a no vote on giving up sovereignty is to submit Protocol 35, which means that laws drafted by officials in Brussels would take precedence over Icelandic laws, then the government is completely out of touch with reality and does not respect the outcome of the referendum,” Sigmundur said.

Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, a Progressive Party MP and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, indicated that his party might support signing Protocol 35. He said the aim was to strengthen the EEA agreement and that part of that effort was resolving all outstanding issues concerning it.

Jóhannsson said the government had explored different approaches from 2017 to 2024, first attempting to defend its position and later seeking the most acceptable solution after the Supreme Court ruling. He said the party had therefore supported measures to strengthen the agreement, but that the government’s approach would have to be assessed.