EU Accession End Proposal Not Likely To Pass This Spring

A proposal from the Minister of Foreign Affairs to end accession talks with the European Union will likely not pass this spring, and may have to wait until autumn before being taken up again.

RÚV reports that Foreign Affairs Committee chairperson Birgir Ármannsson told reporters that over 200 addendums have been submitted for the proposal, and that with the committee work still left to do before the proposal can even be discussed again in parliament, “I consider it unlikely that the processing of this matter will be completed this spring.”

If this turns out to be the case, the proposal would have to wait until October for completion, unless parliament approves a special summer session this year.

As reported , accession talks with the EU were put on hold in the spring of 2013, shortly before parliamentary elections were held. Both parties of the current ruling coalition, the Progressives and the Independence Party, both promised that a referendum would be held on whether or not to continue accession talks.

The breaking of this promise, with the Foreign Ministry’s proposal to just end talks altogether, has prompted regular protests of thousands, and a petition calling for a referendum on the matter that has gathered over 53,000 signatures at the time of this writing.