Katrín Jakobsdóttir rejects EU accession talks

Former Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir said she would vote against opening accession talks with the European Union in Saturday’s referendum, mbl.is reports.

“Dear friends, I will say no in the upcoming vote. I will say no and no again,” she told a meeting of the Áfram Ísland campaign at Austurvöllur.

Jakobsdóttir said that, unlike most of those gathered at the meeting, she had previously voted in favour of opening EU accession negotiations. She did so in 2009, when she was a member of parliament for the Left-Green Movement, because she believed it was her duty to examine the possibility of EU membership for Iceland.

She said the negotiations had made little progress on fisheries and agriculture. Jakobsdóttir said she had reached the same conclusion as what appeared to be a majority of Icelandic farmers ahead of the referendum: EU membership would most likely have a highly negative impact on Icelandic agriculture.

She said this was particularly important for a remote island that should instead be building up food production to strengthen food security, especially during the uncertain times the world is experiencing.

Jakobsdóttir also referred to countries within the EU that received economic support after the financial crash while being forced to make deeper cuts than Iceland and sell public assets.

“I became convinced of the importance of having full control over our affairs and being able to take the measures that suited us, without having to go on our knees to Brussels to ask permission to save ourselves by our own means,” she said.

She said Saturday’s vote would determine whether Icelanders wanted to enter accession negotiations with the EU. In her view, those who supported opening talks needed to justify that decision carefully.

Jakobsdóttir said clear negotiating objectives, plans for constitutional changes and a decisive parliamentary majority would all be needed. “None of this is in place now,” she said.

She said the summer’s debate had shown that the nation was divided into two camps and that strong words had been exchanged by both the yes and no sides. The debate had also shown that there was no broad agreement on EU membership.

“National unity has been a guarantee of success, and that unity simply does not exist on this issue,” she said.

Jakobsdóttir said she would vote no because she was a working person, an active citizen and the mother of three children. She said she sincerely believed Iceland would be better off outside the EU while maintaining close cooperation with it.