Iceland’s parties dispute status of EU membership application

Iceland’s application to join the European Union remains the subject of political disagreement after Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir told the EU that its status was unchanged following a referendum. The dispute was reported by mbl.is.

Gunnarsdóttir avoided repeated questions from opposition MPs in Iceland’s parliament on Thursday about the status of the application, which was submitted in 2009. She said only that its status remained unchanged, without explaining what that status was.

“The government now appears unwilling to end the uncertainty by having parliament resolve to withdraw the application. In that context, I asked the foreign minister what the status of the application was: are we an applicant country or not? She evaded the question and said the status was the same as before the referendum. When she was repeatedly asked what that status was, there was no answer,” Nanna Sigmundsdóttir, an MP for the Centre Party and one of those who raised the questions, told mbl.is.

In a letter to the EU on Tuesday, the foreign minister said the government would not work to resume membership negotiations, “but the status of Iceland’s membership process remains unchanged”.

The foreign minister has opposed formally withdrawing the application. Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir and Pawel Bartoszek, chair of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, have not ruled out doing so.

“No decision has been made. I think it is reasonable for us to take a little time to consider the next steps,” Frostadóttir told mbl.is last week.

The minister sent the letter without consulting the Foreign Affairs Committee, despite such consultation being required. It is also unclear whether the letter was discussed by the government.

Four opposition members of the committee, Diljá Mist Einarsdóttir, Hildur Sverrisdóttir, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, wrote to Bartoszek on Thursday criticising the lack of consultation and demanding a committee meeting.

Bartoszek had apparently neither responded to the request nor called a meeting by Thursday. He confirmed to mbl.is that he had received the committee members’ letter but declined to say whether he would grant their request.