The Icelandic people rejected the reopening of accession negotiations with the European Union on 29 August. After all votes, 52.8 percent of the referendum participants chose "no" and 47.2 percent "yes". The result does not mean exiting European agreements, but protects the country from entering the way of full membership and surrendering further competences to Brussels.
Final result of the referendum
Iceland will not resume accession negotiations with the European Union. In a referendum held on Saturday 29 August, 52.8 percent of participants voted against the talks and 47.2% voted against them again. The final consequence was given by the Icelandic public broadcaster RÚV after the vote has been completed.
The question was to resume negotiations alternatively than to immediately enter the Union. It's an crucial distinction. The triumph of the ‘yes’ camp would open the way for talks whose final consequence would should be assessed separately. The voters stopped this process in the first stage.
The capital turned out to be an exception on the country map. According to RÚV and the Associated Press, Reikiavik was the only region where the majority supported the resumption of negotiations. Apart from the largest centre, caution over full integration prevailed.
Fisheries and control of own resources
The dispute dealt primarily with the economy and scope of state autonomy. Iceland has built a crucial part of its prosperity on fisheries and protection of access to an extended exclusive economical zone. For accession opponents, the submission of this area to a common EU policy meant a hazard of weakening national control of resources.
It was not a fear of Europe. Iceland is part of the European economical Area and the Schengen area, remaining outside the European Union. It so benefits from broad economical cooperation and freedom of movement, but retains greater independency in areas it considers strategic. specified a model shows that European cooperation does not gotta automatically lead to political centralisation.
Accession negotiations began in 2010 after a severe financial crisis. They were suspended in 2013, erstwhile the political agreement changed and weakened support for membership. The decision to hold the current referendum was approved in May. The Icelanders were so given the chance to resolve the political direction straight at the urns.
A lesson of sovereignty for Poland
The consequence from Iceland should be read carefully in Warsaw. A nation of about 400,000 inhabitants felt that the scale of the state did not deprive it of its right to set its own boundaries of integration. The decision took a tiny advantage, but the mandate is clear: accession talks will not be resumed.
Poland is in a different legal and economical position due to the fact that it has been a associate of the Union since 2004. The point remains shared. The transfer of competence should be decided in public control and after fair presentation of the costs. so a referendum on EU climate policy may not be disposed of on the sole charge of Euroscepticism. Poles besides have the right to measure policies that hit energy prices, manufacture and home budgets.
Icelanders have besides shown that further centralization can be rejected without turning distant from the continent. A akin distrust of the transfer of further tools to Brussels can be seen in the currency dispute, as illustrated by Hungarian refusal to accept the euro. A Europe of nations can work together, trade and care for safety together. I don't request 1 political center for all of this.
The referendum in Iceland is so more crucial than the consequence of 1 vote. It shows that citizens can be given a real decision even if the consequence does not match the integration elite. For Poland, the stake is specific: energy prices, the future of industry, food safety and the right to find the state policy independently.
Source: Interia Events, RÚV
Source: Interia Events
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