Thursday 16 July 2009

Iceland, do you want to marry me?

Somebody in my office and many people on Twitter told that the parliament of Iceland decided that the EFTA country will apply for EU membership - so it must be true.

What I think about this:

It will take some time until Iceland will actually become a member. Then the EU will be slightly larger, will have some more people, will need more translators and interpreters, will become a little more Nordic, discussions will be five minutes longer in the Council, and we will be able to pay EU funds towards Iceland.

They won't have to change much. We won't have to change much. It's like Malta joining the EU again, just colder and having the size of Portugal.

It's not like any of the Balkan states or Turkey, where a lot of reforms are still needed to be carried out and where our populations need to be convinced that it is good for all of us if these countries join as soon as ready.

Getting Iceland in the EU is like marrying your partner after you have lived with her/him for decades - it's not like adopting a grown-up child where you don't know how it will behave...

1 comments:

Ralf Grahn said...

Living together in the European Economic Area (EEA), now an engagement - but if public opinion in Iceland does not change, the country may still refuse marriage at the altar (just like Norway has done, twice).

By the way, islands seem to be a special chapter in European integration, almost every one of them somehow outside the main frame in some respect.