MP calls for Iceland to withdraw EU membership bid

Hildur Sverrisdóttir, a member of Iceland’s Independence Party, has called on the government to formally withdraw Iceland’s application to join the European Union, saying it would be the right thing to do after a clear public vote. She spoke to mbl.is.

Sverrisdóttir said she was surprised that the government did not want to show respect for what she described as a clear popular mandate that emerged over the weekend.

She said the referendum had produced a clear result and created a basis for moving forward together in the national interest.

Sverrisdóttir said the government should now focus on pressing issues, including Iceland’s important cooperation with Europe and protecting the European Economic Area agreement, which she called the country’s most important agreement.

She also said Iceland needed to define its position as an independent state in other areas of international cooperation, including free trade and defence policy in an unpredictable world.

However, she said she was puzzled that the government did not intend to formally withdraw Iceland’s EU membership application. Considerable effort had been spent determining whether the older application remained valid, partly because of the wording on the ballot paper.

She said it was therefore strange to leave the issue unresolved with the EU if the referendum question had only concerned whether accession negotiations should be resumed.

Sverrisdóttir said formal withdrawal was not the main issue. The most important thing was for the government to accept the clear public result and focus on Iceland’s interests internationally.

But she added that it would be both correct and more proper to clearly underline the withdrawal in Brussels after the clear expression of public opinion.