So in short, Iceland may hold a referendum on restarting EU membership talks as early as August, accelerated by US tariffs and Trump’s Greenland threats. If voters say yes, it could join faster than any other candidate, since it already follows much of the EU laws. The main hurdle: fishing rights.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​.
WealthForTheWorld on
Big hurdle isn’t politics — it’s fishing rights. That’s been the dealbreaker before.
melody_magical on
Why would fishing rights be a barrier to entry? I’m not well versed in geopolitics
WombeI on
The big question is does Iceland want to join?
As everyone else says fishing laws/rights. 27% of their GDP is a pretty big chunk.
Getherer on
Meanwhile braindead politicians in poland launched propaganda to steer population into wanting a polexit.
veemondumps on
For people who know virtually nothing about this – although the article points out fishing rights as the main barrier, there are a lot of other barriers as well.
Iceland already has almost all of the benefits of EU membership (Iceland is already *effectively* a member of the European joint market). The fact that Iceland has unfettered access to EU markets without having to implement EU environmental regulations is the reason that Iceland’s GDP per capita is among the highest in the world. Iceland is effectively a parasite economy that provides aluminum and banking services to Europe that otherwise could not be provided under existing EU regulations.
I know people will say “but Iceland’s aluminum is most made with geothermal power!” and that’s true, but the process of smelting aluminum generates enormous amounts of carbon dioxide (and other toxic waste) as part of the initial chemical refining of aluminum oxide into elemental aluminum. If Iceland adopted EU environmental regulations, its aluminum industry would die.
The same is true of it’s banking industry. On paper Icelandic banks are subject to laws that are equivalent to those in the EU. In reality, enforcement is deliberately low and smaller “non-bank” financial entities are not subject to Icelandic bank regulations. As a result, Iceland is a popular choice for what is likely money laundering by wealthy Europeans. Again, if Iceland joined the EU this would go away.
Iceland’s effort to join the EU is symbolic right now, because it is trying to show that is is aligned with the EU. But the reality is that there is a 0% chance that Iceland will actually join. Doing so would decimate its economy.
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So in short, Iceland may hold a referendum on restarting EU membership talks as early as August, accelerated by US tariffs and Trump’s Greenland threats. If voters say yes, it could join faster than any other candidate, since it already follows much of the EU laws. The main hurdle: fishing rights.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​.
Big hurdle isn’t politics — it’s fishing rights. That’s been the dealbreaker before.
Why would fishing rights be a barrier to entry? I’m not well versed in geopolitics
The big question is does Iceland want to join?
As everyone else says fishing laws/rights. 27% of their GDP is a pretty big chunk.
Meanwhile braindead politicians in poland launched propaganda to steer population into wanting a polexit.
For people who know virtually nothing about this – although the article points out fishing rights as the main barrier, there are a lot of other barriers as well.
Iceland already has almost all of the benefits of EU membership (Iceland is already *effectively* a member of the European joint market). The fact that Iceland has unfettered access to EU markets without having to implement EU environmental regulations is the reason that Iceland’s GDP per capita is among the highest in the world. Iceland is effectively a parasite economy that provides aluminum and banking services to Europe that otherwise could not be provided under existing EU regulations.
I know people will say “but Iceland’s aluminum is most made with geothermal power!” and that’s true, but the process of smelting aluminum generates enormous amounts of carbon dioxide (and other toxic waste) as part of the initial chemical refining of aluminum oxide into elemental aluminum. If Iceland adopted EU environmental regulations, its aluminum industry would die.
The same is true of it’s banking industry. On paper Icelandic banks are subject to laws that are equivalent to those in the EU. In reality, enforcement is deliberately low and smaller “non-bank” financial entities are not subject to Icelandic bank regulations. As a result, Iceland is a popular choice for what is likely money laundering by wealthy Europeans. Again, if Iceland joined the EU this would go away.
Iceland’s effort to join the EU is symbolic right now, because it is trying to show that is is aligned with the EU. But the reality is that there is a 0% chance that Iceland will actually join. Doing so would decimate its economy.
I thought they already were this whole time