The fate of Iceland’s fishing industry is in question as the nation refused to open its waters for fishing to other European nations by becoming the joining the EU. New Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said that joining the EU and its euro currency was the best option to revive Iceland’s economy, crippled by the collapse last year of its debt-laden banks and currency.
According to EU officials an application could progress swiftly, possibly allowing Iceland to join at the same time as Croatia which hopes to enter in 2011. Daniel Gros, director of the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies, is of a view that the main factor is fisheries as it can go quickly form Iceland hands if it signs up EU. It is told that the signing up to a centralized EU fisheries policy would be hard for a nation which has jealously guarded control of its seas – rich in cod, haddock, herring and other species – and waged “Cod War” disputes with Britain in the 1950s and 1970s.
Stefan Haukur Johannesson, Iceland’s ambassador to the EU, expressed that it is in the Icelandic psyche a very important part of our sovereignty and independence, it is in that sense a sensitivity to join the EU, to become part of the common fisheries policy.
It is said that the EU policy defines annual catch limits for each member country according to species and geographical area. It also sets strict rules on permitted fishing tackle and practices. Ragnar Arnason, professor of economics at the University of Iceland, told that fishermen would have to open up some of their waters to EU states, follow new quota rules, give up some of their equipment and allow much more foreign investment in the industry.
Johannesson informed that fishing and processing of fish represents seven per cent of Iceland’s economy, according to the latest full year data, but its political significance goes deeper. Fishing is even more important in relative terms since the collapse of the financial sector.
One EU diplomat said there would be little room for compromise as fisheries is a common (EU) policy, the European Commission is very much in charge of it. The scope for derogations (opt-outs) is quite limited. Diplomats also noted that France and Germany have said that before enlarging further, the bloc must first revive its stalled Lisbon treaty, meant to streamline its institutions and prepare the bloc to accept more members.
Johannesson said areas in which Iceland did not yet apply EU law included, apart from fisheries, agriculture, regional policy, the budget, and some parts of justice and home affairs. However, it was already applying EU legislation – a requirement for membership – in about 75 per cent of its laws.
