When is iceland joining the eu

For many Icelanders, joining the EU has not been a major priority, with concern instead over how to pay back loans taken on when the economy seemed to be booming before the crash. The small Nordic country was hit hard as the crash of US investment bank Lehman Brothers caused the collapse of its three largest banks. Iceland then became the first western European nation in 25 years to appeal to the International Monetary Fund to save its battered economy.

This article is more than 6 years old. Country first applied in after economic crisis hit banking system hard Opinion polls had shown growing resistance to membership. The EU flag will not fly over Icelandic soil after all, after the country officially cancelled its bid to join the union. The conservative Independence Party and the centre-right Progressive Party are the other parties in government.

The leading opposition parties right now are the centre-left Social Democrats, and the Pirate Party, which deliberately eschews any right-left affiliation. The real dark horse in this race is the Socialist Party. However, they have been campaigning diligently, and a Gallup poll, conducted between September 13 and September 19, shows them polling high enough to win four seats or more.

Given these current levels of party support, if the polls are reflected in the results this Saturday, a two-party coalition -- typically favoured by Icelanders -- will be impossible. A government of three parties might be possible, but only if the Social Democrats break their long-standing campaign promise of refusing to enter into any coalition with the Independence Party, which is currently polling high enough to win 15 seats or about twice as many as any other party.

Such coalitions have, within an Icelandic context, usually been regarded as unstable and undesirable. It will take lengthy and intense negotiations between all of these parties to hammer out a joint platform, and even then, it will require the final stamp of approval from Iceland's president. In a joint letter to the President of the European Parliament, the Representative of the Latvian Presidency and the European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations, all Icelandic opposition parties state:.

The accession process was slowed down two months before the elections in April No such referendum has been held. The Government presented a proposal for a resolution mandating the withdrawal of the application to the Althingi in February The proposal was debated in first reading, but not passed to second reading by the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Iceland was hit severely by the global financial crisis and decided joining the European Union as a viable solution to its problems. In the summer of , Iceland's parliament backed the government's plan to begin accession talks with the European Union.

Only one year later, the country started EU accession talks. The vote was favourable to the Independence Party, which has participated in every government between and , and to the Progressive Party, its main rival and partner in previous coalitions. Both parties are against Iceland joining the EU or the euro. Clawing back When the centrist Progress Party and the right-wing Independence Party came to power in they suspended the talks with Brussels.

Background Iceland was hit severely by the global financial crisis and decided joining the European Union as a viable solution to its problems.