Minister of Transportation Kristján L. Möller has confirmed for reporters that the Dutch military consultancy company ECA Program has been given the green light by Icelandic authorities. Furthermore, the company has already paid to help build their base of operations in Keflavík.
As the Grapevine reported, ECA Program claims to work with governments around the world in dealing with threat assessment, yet few sources outside of the company’s own site can attest to what work they have done. The sources of their finances are also obscure. In Iceland, they intend to house fighter jets and train their clients to fly them.
Conservative MP Jón Gunnarsson asked the minister in parliament yesterday what the situation was with ECA Program, and the minister responded that the Icelandic Civil Aviation Administration was working out the details of ECA Program’s potential relationship with the Keflavík airport. Gunnarsson in turn thanked the minister for the progress report, and then strongly criticized opponents of the ECA Program within the Leftist-Greens for standing in the way of potential job creation.
ECA Program has offered to pay Iceland about 200 billion ISK for use of the old Keflavík air base, and have claimed they could create at least 150 new jobs in the area.
For more on the matter, check out this opinion piece I wrote about EPA Program, Iceland, and what it means to sell your principles.