Iceland's application to join the EU

Abstract

Iceland has recently applied to join the EU. This dissertation focuses on the various aspects of Iceland's EU accession bid. It aims to give a better understanding of the reasons that have made Iceland stay out of further integrating with the E.U. It assesses the major issues that might influence both positively and negatively the result of Iceland's application to join the Union. This dissertation will also deal with the issue of Iceland being a small state. An assessment will be done on whether small states like Iceland gain or lose from EU accession. Finally, public opinion polls and Iceland's EU accession impacts on the EU will also be discussed in order to have a holistic approach to the analysis on Iceland's application to join the EU. The main findings from this research show that the Common Fisheries Policy has been the main factor that delayed Iceland's EU accession bid. Politicians, the interests groups and the general public agree that the Common Fisheries Policy would be detrimental to Iceland. Another interesting finding is that the Iceland-USA political and economic relationship has also been a factor that led Iceland not to seek further EU integration. However, this factor has diminished in importance throughout the years. The public opinion polls that were analysed register a peak in favour of EU membership at the start of the 2008 economic crisis while they register a steep decline in consensus after the Icesave issue. This is because the Icelandic people felt that it was unfair that they had to pay for the mistakes of a small number of companies. Finally, the analysis on the impact of Iceland on the EU shows that the impact is expected to be minimal. The research for this work is based on a qualitative approach by reviewing the previous literature on Iceland's bid to join the EU. Official documents, journals, theses and the internet were also used.