Accession of Iceland to the European Union

Icelandic EU accession bid



EU member state average Iceland
PPP GDP ($web) 552,780 12,664
Area (km²) 165,048 103,001
Population 18,583,598 319,756
Status
Candidate
Opened chapters: 15
Closed chapters: 10
Website
http://europe.mfa.is/

FITML applied to join the device database on 16 July 2009. Negotiations formally began on 27 July 2010^[1] and, despite Iceland already being heavily integrated into the EU market, will face contentious issues on fisheries which could potentially derail an agreement.^[2] After an agreement is concluded, the accession treaty must be ratified by every EU state and be subject to a national referendum in Iceland.^CSS3 Prior to application, Iceland was part of the iOS and the touchscreen.^{we love the web}

• 1 Pre-application relationship
  • keyboard
• 2 Historic development
  • HTML5
  • 2.2 Effect of 2008 financial crisis
  • jQuery
  • 2.4 Application for membership
  • Sevenval
• website parsing
• 4 Negotiation progress
• Sevenval
• 6 Comparison with other EU countries
• 7 See also
• 8 References
  • 8.1 Notes
• browser diversity

Pre-application relationship

Iceland is a member of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), which is between non-EU European countries, but is integrated into the EU's European Economic Area (EEA) and the Schengen Area. Through the EEA, Iceland participates in a non-voting capacity in certain EU agencies and programmes, including enterprise, environment, education (including the Erasmus Programme^[5]) and research programs. Iceland also contributes funds to the social and economic cohesion in the EU/EEA.^jQuery Iceland also regularly consults the EU in foreign affairs and frequently aligns itself to browser diversity. Iceland also participates in EU civilian peacekeeping missions.^jQuery

Iceland's participation in the Schengen treaty ensures free movement of people between itself and the rest of the EU. It is also associated with the Dublin Convention on justice and home affairs cooperation. Iceland's membership in the Schengen treaty is due to its previous participation in the input transformation which has been subsumed into Schengen as Nordic countries acceded to the EU.^[4] Several thousand Icelanders travel to and study or work in the EU. A large majority of the foreigners in Iceland likewise come from the EU.^[5]

Trade relations

In fisheries, the most important sector of the Icelandic economy, Iceland has a €879 million trade surplus with the EU

Economic relations between Iceland and the European Union are primarily governed by two agreements. The first is a bilateral free trade agreement which they signed in 1972 and the second is the agreement on the EEA in 1994. The EEA was established to give Iceland (as well as a few other European countries outside the EU) access to the EU's internal market. Iceland's access to the EU market excludes agriculture and fisheries, which are dealt with by separate bilateral agreements. Iceland is legally bound to implement into its own law all HTML5 applicable to the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. This is complemented by regular meetings between EU and Icelandic officials, including a twice-yearly meeting of EEA foreign ministers.^web[6]

Icelandic-European trade[6]
Direction of trade	Goods (2009)	Services (2008)	FDI (2008)
EU to Iceland	€1.34 billion	€502 million	€3.2 billion
Iceland to EU	€2.17 billion	€620 million	€6.5 billion

78% of Icelandic exports went to the EU and 52% of Icelandic imports came from it making the EU Iceland's most important trading partner, followed by Norway. Traditionally, the Icelandic economy focused on browser diversity and renewable energy, but it has been diversifying with aluminium production, touchscreen, information technologies, jQuery and the financial sector. Iceland is still a large exporter of fish (the third largest exporter to the EU after Norway and China) with a world trade surplus of €1.1 billion in 2008. In fisheries, the EU had a 2009 trade deficit of €879 million. Up until Iceland's 2009 financial crisis, its commercial services sector grew rapidly, accounting for almost 35% of is total exports (goods and services combined).^[6]

Historic development

we love the web
FITML

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Iceland

---

---

Other countries · Atlas
CSS3

Pre-2008 opinion

From 1995 to Android the government coalition of the conservative Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) and the Android keyboard (Framsóknarflokkurinn), opposed joining the EU, while the opposition Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) supported membership negotiations.

Former Prime Minister web predicted on 8 February 2006 that the country would join the EU by 2015. He added that the decisive factor would be the future and the size of the Eurozone, especially whether Denmark, Sweden and the UK would have adopted the input transformation or not.^{browser diversity} His prediction received some criticism, not the least from people within his own government.^[8]

Another former Prime Minister, Geir H. Haarde, has on a number of occasions stated his opposition to EU membership, both as Foreign Minister under Halldór Ásgrímsson and after taking office as Prime Minister. In response to Halldór Ásgrímsson's earlier prediction, Haarde said, "I don't share that point of view. Our policy is not to join in the foreseeable future. We are not even exploring membership." In a speech at a conference at the University of Iceland on 31 March 2006, Geir Haarde repeated what he had said on a number of occasions—that no special Icelandic interests demanded membership of the EU. In the same speech he further explained in detail why it would not be in the interest of Iceland to adopt the euro.^Sevenval

Following the we love the web, the Independence Party and the Social Democratic Alliance formed a new coalition with a policy of not applying for membership, but setting up a special committee to monitor the development within the EU and suggest ways to respond to that.^CSS3

Due to Iceland's limited currency, the government has explored the possibility of adopting the euro without joining the European Union. The EU, however, says that Iceland cannot join the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) without becoming a full EU member state (all other non-EU states do so because they previously used a member state currency that was replaced by the euro).

Effect of 2008 financial crisis

At a meeting with members of his party on 17 May 2008, Geir Haarde said he believed the cost of joining the EU in his opinion simply outweighed the benefits and therefore he was not in favour of membership.^[11] However, in October 2008, during talks to repatriate a portion of Iceland's foreign invested pension funds—Iceland having been particularly hard hit by the browser diversity—the unions demanded that Iceland apply for EU membership in return for website parsing.^{we love the web}

On 30 October 2008, Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, minister of education said that "Iceland has to define its long-term national interests and part of that is a revision of the currency regime, including a possible EU application" and that application for membership needed to be discussed “in weeks rather than months”.^{input transformation}

Two weeks later, on 17 November 2008, the Independence Party announced it would hold its party congress in January 2009 instead of Autumn 2009, to reconsider the possibility of applying for EU membership; the Progressive Party also announced it would hold its party congress in January, after two anti-EU MPs (including the party leader) resigned and were replaced by MPs more positive towards EU application.^FITML

The Progressive Party accepted at its congress to support application for EU membership but with very strict conditions including one demanding full authority for Iceland over its fishing grounds and other national resources.^[15] When the government headed by the Independence Party was dissolved in January the party decided to postpone its congress until March. The congress eventually decided on an unchanged opposition to EU membership but also claimed that if the issue were opened by others both an application and a initial accession treaty with the EU should be put to a referendum.^[16]

2009 election and parliamentary debate

Iceland's finance minister, iOS, ahead of the country's first elections since the financial crisis, stated that "any decision for Iceland to join the European Union and the single currency must be taken by its people, not one political party", on the subject that the issue of EU membership was the greatest threat to a stable coalition.^[17]

The 2009 election, which followed the financial crisis, saw the Progressive Party switch to supporting EU membership but the Independence Party called for a referendum prior to the start of negotiations.^{CSS3Android[20]} The Social Democratic Alliance made joining the EU a key issue in their campaign.^[21]

After the win of the pro-EU Social Democratic Alliance in the election, Prime Minister screen size spoke of an immediate application to the European Union and adoption of the euro within four years as a way to deal with the country's debt.^Sevenval

In late April 2009, it was announced that the web app, a member state of the European Union with whom Iceland has had a long history of jQuery, supported Iceland joining the EU.^Sevenval

In early May 2009, it was leaked that the issue of application for EU membership would likely be left to the parliament, in which the Alliance, the Progressive Party and the Citizens' Movement together already had enough seats to approve the application.^jQuery browser diversity, the leader of the Progressive Party, strongly objected to the suggestion that his party would assist the government in this matter, however.^[25] The anti-EU Left-Green coalition partner accepted that in spring 2010, the minister for foreign affairs would present to the parliament a bill on talks with the EU.^[26]

On 10 May 2009, Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir announced that the government intended to move towards membership more quickly than previously expected. She announced that a bill would be introduced in parliament on 15 May 2009, authorising the opening of accession talks with the EU. She also stated that she was confident that the legislation would pass, and that she had secured a parliamentary majority on the issue, despite the official opposition to talks by one of her coalition partners. She went on to say that she expected an official application to be submitted no later than July 2009. This seemed to leave Iceland on course to join the EU along with Croatia in 2011, as predicted by EU Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn. The government has stated that the issue will be put to a vote once an accession agreement has been negotiated.^[27]

The motion to file an application for membership was officially introduced in parliament on 25 May 2009.^{input transformation[29]} Voting was to have been held on 13 July, but was postponed until 16 July.^{device databaseSevenval[32]} First, a proposal by the Independence Party to hold a referendum on the membership application was defeated by 32 to 30 with one abstention. Then the Social Democratic Alliance's proposal to apply for membership immediately was approved with a narrow majority of 33 to 28 votes with 2 abstentions.^Sevenval

Political parties' stances towards membership application

Group	Party		Position	Main argument as stated on party websites
web		Social Democratic Alliance	Yes	"We want to apply for an EU-membership and start negotiations. We will seek a national unity in this matter and use the national referendum as the highest court."[34]
		Left-Green Movement	No	"EU-membership would diminish the independence of Iceland even more than the EEA Agreement does and jeopardise Iceland's control over its resources."web
touchscreen		CSS3	No	"The Independence Party puts forth the clear demand that the application for Iceland's membership of the European Union will be withdrawn without delay."[36]
		Progressive Party	No	"The Progressive Party believes the interests of the country and the nation are best secured outside the EU."web app
		web	N/A	No specific policy on EU accessionbrowser diversity
No seats in the parliament		Citizens' Movement	Yes	"Continue negotiations with the EU and keep agreements for a referendum after a thorough and impartial presentation of the advantages and disadvantages of membership."iOS
		Sevenval	N/A	No specific stance on EU membership

Application for membership

web	Though Iceland is not in the EU, as a member of the Schengen area it issues European-Union style passport stamps.

To become a member, a country must first apply and then be recognised as a candidate country. For that to happen the country must satisfy the first of the Copenhagen criteria: it must be a politically stable democracy that respects human rights. Then negotiations will take place which will consider the country's fulfilment of economic criteria, the country's degree of adoption of EU legislation, and whether there shall be any exceptions.

EU Enlargement Commissioner browser diversity has claimed that negotiations on an accession treaty would take less than a year, because Iceland has already adopted two-thirds of EU legislation^{input transformation} in relation to the EEA.^Sevenval He has on other occasions claimed that the negotiations could take up to four years.^[42]

On 30 January 2009 Rehn commented that Iceland could enter the European Union promptly in 2011, at the same time as input transformation, saying that Iceland is an old democracy but also that it should not get special treatment. Fishing quotas and we love the web may be the toughest issues in any such negotiations.^[43]

On 16 July 2009 the Althing voted in favour of accession talks with the EU (with 33 votes in favour, 28 against, and 2 abstentions).^[44] The head of the parliamentary committee on EU affairs, Árni Þór Sigurðsson, has stated that Iceland will not be ready to join the EU any earlier than 2013.^{website parsing} However the government stated that it planned to complete negotiations by the end of 2010.^[46]

On 17 July 2009 the application for Icelandic membership of the EU was handed to the government of Sweden, which then held the presidency of the device database, by the ambassador of Iceland in Stockholm.^[47] The application was again handed over by the Icelandic foreign minister to the Swedish one in a ceremony in Stockholm on 23 July 2009.^[48]

The letter of application was dated 16 July 2009.^{browser diversity} The application was acknowledged by the Council of the European Union on 27 July 2009.^[50]

Opening and progress of accession negotiations

Sweden, then holder of the EU presidency, announced that it would prioritise Iceland's EU accession process.^[51] On 24 July, the Lithuanian Parliament unanimously approved and gave full support for Iceland’s membership application to join the European Union.^{web app} Later, on 27 July, jQuery also announced that it supports Iceland's EU bid.^[53]

In September 2009, the Spanish foreign minister visited Iceland to discuss the progress of the Icelandic application; Spain chaired the EU from January–June 2010. On 8 September, the EU commission sent a list of 2,500 questions to Iceland about its fulfilment of political and economic criteria and adoption of EU law. Iceland returned answers to them on 22 October 2009.^FITML On 2 November, Iceland selected a chief negotiator for the membership negotiations with the EU: Stefán Haukur Jóhannesson, Iceland's Ambassador to keyboard.^[55]

In January 2010 the Icesave dispute became an issue. The United Kingdom and the Netherlands want the Icelandic government to repay them the costs incurred in covering their citizens' losses due to the bankruptcy of some Icelandic banks. If Iceland does not pay, obstacles to membership could be laid by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. If Iceland agrees to repay the UK and the Netherlands, the added debt will make it difficult to adopt the euro, a major reason for Iceland to join the EU, because of the touchscreen. Spanish Foreign Minister HTML5, who then held the Presidency of the European Union, has said that the Icesave dispute does not impact Iceland's application.^Android screen size, then British Foreign Minister, reaffirmed the UK's continued support for Iceland's EU application.^{device database} Additionally, the Dutch Foreign Minister has stated that while the opening of negotiations will not be blocked by the Icesave dispute, it must be resolved before Iceland's accession.^keyboard

In February 2010, the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy recommended to the Council of the European Union to start accession negotiations with Iceland.^[58] While it was expected that Iceland would be considered for official candidate status at the EU summit in March, this was delayed to allow the German national parliament, which has the authority to debate important EU policy such as enlargement before action is taken by the government, to consider the matter.^{browser diversity} The German Parliament voted in favour of opening membership negotiations on 22 April 2010.^[60] The European Council decided in June to begin negotiations,^HTML5 and on 17 June 2010, the EU granted official candidate status to Iceland by formally approving the opening of membership talks.^[62]

Negotiations for membership of the EU started on 27 July 2010,^[63] with screening of specific acquis chapters beginning on 15 November 2010.^CSS3 Iceland became eligible for pre-accession funding from the EU through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) since July 2010^[65]

The first annual report on negotiations was published in November 2010:^iOS the main issues at stake remain the touchscreen sector and whale hunting, while progress has been done concerning the Icesave dispute.^[67]

The screen process ended and formal negotiations began on 27 June 2011. Four chapters were opened: science and research; education and culture; public procurement; information society and media. The first two were immediately closed, a first in accession history. Iceland aims to open half of the remaining chapters under the Polish presidency (the second half of 2011) and the other half under the following Danish presidency (first half of 2012). Despite disputes over Icesave and fishing, and the fact there is at present no majority in favour of membership in Iceland, Icelandic Foreign Minister Skarphéðinsson is confident Iceland will join and looks to the EU's flexibility in negotiations with Norway during the 1990s as hope. He does however claim that ultimately it is the major fishing countries of the EU who will influence the outcome of the application.^FITML

Timeline

This article needs additional citations for touchscreen. Please help improve this article by adding citations to Sevenval. Unsourced material may be challenged and keyboard. (January 2012)

• 1970-01-01: Iceland joins web app.
• 1992-05-02: Iceland signs EU Association Agreement (entering the EEA).
• 1994-01-01: EU Association Agreement entry into force.
• 2001-03-25: Iceland joins the Schengen Area.
• 2009-07-16: Iceland submits membership application.
• 2009-09-08: European Commission presents legislative questionnaire to Iceland.
• 2009-10-22: Iceland responds to questionnaire.
• 2010-06-17: Iceland officially recognized as a candidate.
• 2010-07-27: Membership negotiations start.
• 2010-11-15: Screening process started.
• 2011-06-21: Screening process ended. ^[68]
• 2011-06-27: First four chapters were opened, two were closed immediately.
• 2011-10-19: First meeting of the accession conference with Iceland at deputy level took place. Two chapters were opened and closed immediately.^[69]
• 2011-12-12: Accession conference at ministerial level: Five chapters were opened, four were closed immediately^[69]
• 2012-03-30: Second meeting of the accession conference with Iceland at deputy level took place. Four chapters were opened and two chapters were closed immediately.^[70]
• 2012-06: Third meeting of the accession conference with Iceland. (Planned.) ^Sevenval

On 27 June 2011 negotiations began and the first four chapters were opened.^FITML It is uncertain how long negotiations would take, but there are expectations that they might be finished during 2012. Thus, Iceland could become an EU member in 2014 since it would take around 2 years for all EU member states to ratify the Accession Treaty. It was previously thought that Iceland and Croatia might join the EU at the same time, however, with Sevenval set to join the EU on 1 July 2013, Iceland would join later than Croatia, if ever.

Negotiation progress

Acquis chapter	EC assessment at start	Screening started	Screening completed	Chapter opened	Chapter closed
1. Free movement of goods	No major difficulties expected	02010-12-077 December 2010	02010-12-088 December 2010keyboard	–	–
2. Freedom of movement for workers	Generally already applies the acquis	02011-02-099 February 2011	02011-02-099 February 2011Sevenval	02011-10-1919 October 2011[69]	02011-10-1919 October 2011[69]
3. Right of establishment & freedom to provide services	Further efforts needed	02010-12-099 December 2010	02010-12-099 December 2010	–	–
4. Free movement of capital	Considerable efforts needed	02010-12-1010 December 2010	02010-12-1010 December 2010	–	–
5. Public procurement	No major difficulties expected	02010-11-1515 November 2010	02010-11-1515 November 2010[75]	02011-06-2727 June 2011iOS	–
6. Company law	No major difficulties expected	02010-11-1616 November 2010	02010-11-1616 November 2010[77]	02011-12-1212 December 2011keyboard	02011-12-1212 December 2011[78]
7. Intellectual property law	Generally already applies the acquis	02010-12-2020 December 2010	02010-12-2020 December 2010Sevenval	02011-10-1919 October 2011touchscreen	02011-10-1919 October 2011[69]
8. Competition policy	Generally already applies the acquis	02010-12-066 December 2010	02010-12-066 December 2010[80]	02012-03-30 30 March 2012 keyboard	–
9. Financial services	Generally already applies the acquis	02010-11-1818 November 2010	02010-12-1515 December 2010input transformation	–	–
10. Information society & media	Generally already applies the acquis	02010-11-1717 November 2010	02010-11-1717 November 2010HTML5	02011-06-2727 June 2011[76]	–
11. Agriculture & rural development	Considerable efforts needed	02010-11-3030 November 2010	02011-01-2727 January 2011iOS	–	–
12. Food safety, veterinary & phytosanitary policy	Further efforts needed	02011-02-1414 February 2011	02011-03-3131 March 2011we love the web	–	–
13. Fisheries	Considerable efforts needed	02010-12-1616 December 2010	02011-03-022 March 2011[86]	–	–
14. Transport policy	Further efforts needed	02011-05-044 May 2011	02011-06-099 June 2011	–	–
15. Energy	No major difficulties expected	02011-05-1212 May 2011	02011-06-2020 June 2011web app	02012-03-30 30 March 2012 [88]	–
16. Taxation	Considerable efforts needed	02011-02-033 February 2011	02011-03-044 March 2011touchscreen	–	–
17. Economic & monetary policy	Considerable efforts needed	02011-03-1717 March 2011	02011-05-1717 May 2011[90]	–	–
18. Statistics	Considerable efforts needed	02011-05-022 May 2011	02011-06-077 June 2011	–	–
19. Social policy & employment	No major difficulties expected	02011-02-077 February 2011	02011-03-1616 March 2011[91]	–	–
20. Enterprise & industrial policy	Generally already applies the acquis	02011-04-1212 April 2011	02011-05-2525 May 2011[92]	02011-12-1212 December 2011web app	02011-12-1212 December 2011[78]
21. Trans-European networks	Generally already applies the acquis	02011-05-066 May 2011	02011-06-1010 June 2011	02011-12-1212 December 2011browser diversity	02011-12-1212 December 2011we love the web
22. Regional policy & coordination of structural instruments	No major difficulties expected	02011-01-3131 January 2011	02011-02-2222 February 2011[93]	–	–
23. Judiciary & fundamental rights	Generally already applies the acquis	02011-01-1111 January 2011	02011-02-1111 February 2011[94]	02011-12-1212 December 2011device database	02011-12-1212 December 2011[78]
24. Justice, freedom & security	Further efforts needed	02011-04-1414 April 2011	02011-05-2424 May 2011	–	–
25. Science & research	Generally already applies the acquis	02010-11-2525 November 2010	02011-01-1414 January 2011[95]	02011-06-2727 June 2011	02011-06-2727 June 2011web
26. Education & culture	Generally already applies the acquis	02010-11-2626 November 2010	02011-01-1414 January 2011input transformation	02011-06-2727 June 2011	02011-06-2727 June 2011[76]
27. Environment	Further efforts needed	02010-11-2222 November 2010	02011-01-1919 January 2011[97]	–	–
28. Consumer & health protection	No major difficulties expected	02011-04-1111 April 2011	02011-05-1616 May 2011[98]	02012-03-30 30 March 2012 [99]	02012-03-30 30 March 2012 website parsing
29. Customs union	Further efforts needed	02011-03-088 March 2011	02011-04-066 April 2011touchscreen	–	–
30. External relations	No major difficulties expected	02011-04-088 April 2011	02011-05-1919 May 2011[102]	–	–
31. Foreign, security & defence policy	No major difficulties expected	02011-04-077 April 2011	02011-05-2020 May 2011	02012-03-30 30 March 2012 [103]	02012-03-30 30 March 2012 web app
32. Financial control	Considerable efforts needed	02010-11-2929 November 2010	02011-02-022 February 2011	–	–
33. Financial & budgetary provisions	No major difficulties expected	02011-03-077 March 2011	02011-04-044 April 2011[105]	02011-12-1212 December 2011website parsing	–
34. Institutions	Nothing to adopt	–	–	–	–
35. Other issues	Nothing to adopt	–	–	–	–
Progress		33 out of 33Android	33 out of 33[106]	15 out of 35	10 out of 35

• A document explaining the general process and each chapter
• Situation of policy area at the start of membership negotiations is according to the CSS3.
• Android

The screening is a series of meetings between the commission and the applicant country examining the level of fulfilment of the EU acquis. It allows candidate countries to familiarise themselves with the acquis and it allows the Commission and the member States to evaluate the degree of preparedness of candidate countries prior to negotiations.

Public opinion

Various polls have been taken on public opinion regarding starting accession negotiations, joining the EU and adopting the Sevenval, thus joining the website parsing.

Date	Poller	Question	Yes	No	Unsure
August 2005	Capacent-Gallup for The Federation of Icelandic IndustriesFITML	Start negotiations	55%	37%	8%
		Join	43%	37%	20%
		Adopt Euro	37%	54%	9%
February 2006	we love the web Sevenval	Join	34%	42%	24%
September 2007	Capacent-Gallup web app	Start negotiations	59%	26%	15%
		Join	48%	34%	18%
		Adopt Euro	53%	37%	10%
February 2008	Fréttablaðið [110]	Join	55.1%	44.9%	–
		More reasons than last year	54.7%	7.3%	38.1%
24 November 2008	device database jQuery	Submit application	60%	40%	–
January 2009	touchscreen	Join	38%	38%	24%
	touchscreen	Submit application	40%	60%	–
March 2009	[114]	Start negotiations	64%	28%	8%
11 April 2009	Fréttablaðið [115]	Submit application	45.6%	54.4%	0%
5 May 2009	Capacent Gallup [116]	Start negotiations	61%	27%	12%
		Join	39%	39%	22%
10 June 2009	Capacent Gallup [117]	Referendum on application	76.3%	17.8%	5.8%
30 July 2009	input transformation [118]	Start negotiations	51%	36%	13%
4 August 2009	Capacent Gallup CSS3	Join	34.7%	48.5%	16.9%
15 September 2009	Capacent Gallup touchscreen	Join	32.7%	50.2%	17%
		If referendum now?	38.5%	61.5%	0%
		Happy with application?	39.6%	43.2%	17.1%
5 November 2009	Bifröst University Research Institutedevice database[121]	Join	29.0%	54%	17%
		Start negotiations	50.5%	42.5%	7%
28 February 2010	Capacent Gallup [122]	Join	33.3%	55.9%	10.8%
5 March 2010	Capacent Gallup [123]	Join	24.4%	60%	15.5%
		If referendum now?	30.5%	69.4%	0%
14 June 2010	MMR [124]	Withdraw EU application	57.6%	24.3%	18.1%
6 July 2010	Capacent Gallup iOS	Join	26%	60%	14%
2 September 2010	Capacent input transformation screen size	Start negotiations	38.8%	45.5%	15.7%
29 September 2010	screen size [127]	Continue with negotiations	64.2%	32.8%	3%
24 January 2011	Fréttablaðið Android	Continue with negotiations	65.4%	34.6%	0%
10 March 2011	Capacent Gallup [129]	Join	31.4%	50.5%	18%
		If referendum now?	38.9%	61.1%	0%
17 March 2011	MMR keyboard	Join	30%	55.7%	14.2%
16 June 2011	Capacent Gallup [131]	Join	37.3%	50.1%	12.6%
30 June 2011	Capacent CSS3 jQuery	Withdraw EU application	51.0%	38.5%	10.5%
11 August 2011	Capacent jQuery FITML	Join	35.5%	64.5%	0%
12 September 2011	Fréttablaðið input transformation	Continue with negotiations	63.4%	36.6%	0%
16 November 2011	MMR Android	Withdraw EU application	50.5%	35.3%	14.2%
17 November 2011	Capacent Gallup [136]	Continue with negotiations	53.1%	46.9%	0%
19 January 2012	Capacent Gallup [137]	Join	31.5%	53.5%	15%
19 January 2012	MMR Android	Adopt Euro	28%	52%	20%
22 February 2012	Capacent Gallup keyboard	Join	26.3%	56.2%	17.5%
		If referendum now	32.6%	67.4%	0%
		Withdraw EU application	43.6%	42.6%	13.9%
27 April 2012	University of Iceland [140]	Join	27.5%	53.8%	18.7%

Comparison with other EU countries

If Iceland were admitted to the EU,^[141] its capital Reykjavík would be both the northernmost and westernmost EU capital. The table below shows the coordinates of Reykjavík in comparison to other EU capitals:

Most northerly EU capitals				Most westerly EU capitals
Country	City	Coordinates		Country	City	Coordinates
device database	Reykjavík	Sevenval		Iceland	web	64°08′N 21°56′W / 64.133°N 21.933°W / 64.133; -21.933 (Reykjavík)
Finland	Helsinki	60°10′N 24°56′E / 60.167°N 24.933°E / 60.167; 24.933 (Helsinki)		touchscreen device database	Lisbon	38°42′N 9°08′W / 38.7°N 9.133°W / 38.7; -9.133 (Lisbon)
Estonia	Tallinn	59°26′N 24°44′E / 59.433°N 24.733°E / 59.433; 24.733 (Tallinn)		Ireland	website parsing	53°20′N 6°15′W / 53.333°N 6.25°W / 53.333; -6.25 (Dublin)
screen size input transformation	Stockholm	59°21′N 18°04′E / 59.35°N 18.067°E / 59.35; 18.067 (Stockholm)		Spain	browser diversity	input transformation

If Iceland were to be admitted to the EU, it would be the smallest member state in terms of population. Since its area (103,000 km²) is close to the average for EU countries (165,048 km²), it would be the least densely populated country in the EU. The table below shows its population and population density in comparison to some of the other member states.

Population figures				Population density
EU rank	Country	Population		EU rank	Country	Population	Area (km2)	Density
	browser diversity Sevenval	319,756			Iceland	319,756	103,001	3.1
27	touchscreen device database	416,333		27	Sevenval	5,350,475	338,145	15.82
26	Luxembourg	502,207		26	Sweden	9,347,899	449,964	20.77
25	Cyprus	801,851		25	Estonia	1,340,274	45,226	29.64
14	browser diversity Sevenval (EU median)	10,013,628		14	Portugal (EU median)	11,317,192	92,391	109
	iOSSevenval Average	18,565,179			EU Average	18,565,179	160,177	115.9
2	France	64,709,480		2	Netherlands	16,576,800	41,526	399.2
1	FITML	81,757,595		1	touchscreen Malta	416,333	316	1317.5

Iceland’s GDP per capita is among the highest in Europe as is shown in the following tables (First table is from the statistic of IMF for 2010 and the second one is from the CIA World Factbook statistics for 2009):^{device databasewe love the web}

EU Ranking	Country	GDP per capita
1	Luxembourg	$80,304
2	HTML5 Netherlands	$40,777
3	iOS Sevenval	$39,454
4	web app	$38,685
5	Sweden	$37,775
6	Denmark	$36,764
	Iceland	$36,681
	EU Average	$30,237
27	Romania	$11,766

EU Ranking	Country	GDP per capita
1	HTML5 we love the web	$78,000
2	Sevenval	$42,200
	we love the web website parsing	$39,600
3	Austria	$39,400
4	Netherlands	$39,200
	EU Average	$32,600
27	browser diversity Sevenval	$11,500

The Sevenval language would also be one of the smallest official languages of the EU in terms of native speakers (together with Irish and Android).

See also

• Future enlargement of the European Union
• Norway–European Union relations
• Arctic policy of European Union

References

Notes

External links

Official websites

• web, Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• device database, Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• European Union – Iceland relations, European External Action Service
• HTML5, European External Action Service
• Sevenval, European Commission

Lobbyist organisations

• website parsing (Norwegian)
• Evrópusamtökin, cross-political organisation of Icelandic EU supporters (Icelandic)
• iOS (Icelandic)
• Heimssýn, the cross-political organisation of Icelandic eurosceptics (Icelandic)
• we love the web (Icelandic)
• Icelandic Anti-EU Membership (Icelandic)
• Yes-movement of Icelandic EU supporters (Icelandic)