Kristrún says EU membership benefits would outweigh costs

Kristrún Frostadóttir says Iceland could have several advantages in membership talks with the European Union, but it is too early to discuss the next steps. In an interview with mbl.is, she said those advantages would become clearer only after the government received a mandate from voters to continue the process.

Frostadóttir said she would rather listen to people during a series of public meetings that began on Tuesday evening. Regardless of the outcome of the vote, she said, the government, parliament, her Social Democratic Alliance and the public would have to work with the result.

She said it was important to hear how people assessed the situation, whether they supported membership, opposed it or remained undecided. She also said she would answer questions as fully as possible.

Frostadóttir rejected the suggestion that the meetings represented a change in the government’s earlier intention to take the issue out of party politics and let voters decide. She said she had regularly held public meetings over the years and regarded them as valuable.

She described the overall debate as good, although it had sometimes been harsh and uneven in substance. Political debate in parliament and among political parties was not always highly substantive either, she said.

Long process ahead

Frostadóttir said it was premature to discuss whether Iceland could join the ERM II exchange-rate mechanism, which precedes adoption of the euro, if voters supported continuing the process.

She said several options could be available to Iceland because the country was already closely connected and integrated with the European Union, allowing it to do things that other countries had not done during their accession processes.

She stressed that any positive vote would mark only the beginning of a long process. Even if negotiations proceeded quickly and successfully, another referendum would be needed, along with constitutional amendments and approval of an accession agreement by the other member states.

Pawel Bartoszek, chairman of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has estimated that EU membership could cost Iceland 20 billion to 30 billion Icelandic krónur a year. Based on agreements involving Montenegro, described in the article as a very poor country, the annual cost could be closer to 50 billion krónur.