The EU might supply Iceland a carve-out on fishing coverage to speed up the nation’s potential bid to affix the bloc, Brussels has mentioned, because the union seeks to increase its footprint within the strategically essential Arctic.
Iceland is preparing for a referendum in August on whether or not to restart EU membership talks, because it grapples with safety issues which have sharpened because of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland. Iceland’s earlier bid to affix the EU, greater than a decade in the past, was frozen after a stand-off with Brussels over fishing rights.
However Costas Kadis, the EU’s commissioner for fishing, instructed the FT there’s “undoubtedly room for flexibility” because the bloc evaluations its decades-old aquaculture coverage. Requested if the EU could be open to providing Iceland exemptions, the commissioner mentioned: “Sure, sure. Will probably be a part of the discussions.
“We will discover options on points which are a problem, similar to sharing preparations on shared fish shares,” Kadis mentioned. “Iceland and the European Union are coming nearer . . . bearing in mind latest geopolitical developments.”
The European Fee has intensified a rethink of its Arctic technique since Trump’s rhetoric over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, reached a peak earlier this yr. Icelandic officers have been rattled by Trump repeatedly mixing up Greenland and Iceland when staking a declare to the big Arctic island.
The EU’s push to herald new members can be a part of a broader shift since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with Brussels at the moment transforming its accession course of for Ukraine. In the meantime, uncertainty over US military commitments has accelerated the bloc’s efforts to bolster its personal safety and produce neighbouring nations nearer.
Kadis, a Greek former agriculture minister, added versatile fishing insurance policies might additionally make integration extra enticing for “different like-minded nations” similar to Norway, the place disputes over marine merchandise have been a key issue within the petrostate rejecting EU membership in 1994.
Fishing can be a sticking level in efforts to enhance the EU’s post-Brexit relationship with the UK.
In 2024, marine merchandise accounted for practically 40 per cent of the worth of Iceland’s exported items, based on Statistics Iceland.
Some diplomats have advised Trump’s threats against Greenland might spur Iceland to view the EU’s army help clause and new give attention to defence coverage as causes to affix the bloc.
However coming into the EU has lengthy been controversial in Iceland. Latest polling reveals 47 per cent in opposition to and 40 per cent for becoming a member of, with fisheries remaining the decisive difficulty.
Officers and diplomats say that with out some type of flexibility on the difficulty, usually cited as essential for the coastal nation as automobiles are to Germany, EU membership is unlikely.
“We now have constructed our fisheries like a enterprise, whereas within the EU fisheries are nonetheless handled as a regional coverage, they subsidise it. It could not work,” one Icelandic official mentioned.
However they added that the geopolitical backdrop had “completely modified” because the final spherical of talks, with Reykjavik more and more nervous about Washington’s considering following the Greenland disaster. Iceland, although a founding Nato member, doesn’t have its personal standing army, and is roofed by the identical chilly war-era defence agreements with the US courting again to 1951.
One other official mentioned that EU membership had taken on new significance from a safety perspective, including: “I feel it’ll be a really, very slender referendum . . . a fishing carve-out might undoubtedly transfer the needle.”
The EU’s fishing coverage, from 1970, has additionally raised scrutiny from present member states. In a joint letter to Kadis, seen by the FT, 12 member states together with Germany and France warned the executive burden on fisheries has grow to be so complicated it’s creating difficulties in day-to-day operations.
One diplomat described the insurance policies as “tremendous complicated and old style”, including “I haven’t met anybody in Brussels who really understands them”.
Kadis mentioned simplification could be one of many important parts within the renewed coverage, which would come with “modernisation and decarbonisation of the fishing fleet”, attracting “the youthful technology” and modernising “the regulatory framework and make it extra easy and fewer bureaucratic”.
Information visualisation by Steve Bernard
