Iceland walks out on EU membership talks

The right move for Iceland. Stay out of the sinking ship that is the EU. Perhaps the Icelandic fishing fleet can send some boats to pick up other countries drowning under the strict rule of Brussels. Denmark, the Netherlands, and Finland to name a few. Let the south figure it out, the North doesn't want to pay any longer.

Well done Iceland - real democracy in action.

You saw off the bankers and now you have seen off the traitors in your own country who would have been willing to sell you off for their own selfish reasons.

Stay free friends.

Politicians that actually listens to their minions? That is so odd!! A hoax, right?

Good for you Iceland - right decision. I know a fair bit about your rugged, beautiful country, which I have toured and travelled all over. You have enormous reserves of hydro energy and other natural resources, especially your fish stocks. You have a proud history, culture and a hard working, rugged attitude to life and all that will endangered if you allow yourself to be bullied by the Brussels bureaucrats. You won independence from Denmark so don't throw it away now. Stay Icelandic, not a euro mess. Well done !

Well done Iceland !!!,It's about time other governments listened to their electorate.It appears these people at the EU are becoming the very people they warned us against since the end of the second world war THE NAZIS.

Best decision. We should all go back to the EEC.

The truth is the accession process ended the moment it became clear which parties were going to form the present coalition after the spring elections. The 2009 Althingi vote is neither here nor there, it never carried any legal force and did not bind future governments or indeed parliaments to the membership negotiations. It really did not require constitutional experts to arrive at his conclusion.

The decision to halt the process is a political one, albeit one supported by the majority of Icelanders who for a variety of reasons feel especially antipathetic towards the EU at the moment. They particularly resent the EU's role in the collapse of the banks in 2008 and its part in the Icesave issue. While the mackerel dispute is a running sore between Iceland and and the EU. There is also a general belief that the EU is simply after Iceland's fish and abundant natural energy resources. And of course there is the widely held view that membership would pose a threat to Iceland's language and cultural identity. The thorny issue of whaling is closely tied to a number of these issues.

The irony is that Halldor Asgrimsson, a former Fisheries Minister, Foreign Minister and Prime Minister and leader of the Progressive Party when they were last in coalition with the Independence Party, saw EU membership as not only desirable but inevitable. Thorsteinn Palsson, another former Fisheries and Prime Minister and leader of the Independence Party, who happens to have served as Ambassador to the UK and Denmark since leaving active politics, is also of the view that Iceland's interests would be best served by membership of the EU.

It now looks as if the Icelandic people are unlikely to get an opportunity to assess for themselves what the advantages and disadvantages of EU membership might be and to make up their own minds on whether or not to join.

Alp Mehmet

Former British Ambassador to Iceland (2004-2008)

Well, the Icelandic government does not so much listen to its people but more to its masters - the rich fisheries barons who paid a lot into the party coffers before the election (Scrapping an extra tax on profit from fisheries was the first thing the new government did.). "Real democracy" would be to hold the public referendum about the EU assession talks that they promised before the elections and on which they now backed off on. Better not risking that the people might have a different opinion about the EU talks than the government and its masters.

Good for you Iceland. Not only do you have a Government that listens to you, but they are learning from the mistakes of others - that mistake being in joining this corrupt fiasco, the EU.
Retain your Sovereinty and keep control of your own destiny, otherwise you will end up like us here in the UK - almost totally governed by these unelected trolls from Brussels and controlled at home by Parlimentarians who make promises about referendums and then break them at the first opportunity.
If you join the EU, the first thing that you will lose is control over your Fishing. They will devastate your fishing fleets, just like they did to the UK.

Full marks for Iceland, if only the UK Government would think the same way.

dear all, well done Iceland for saying no. Britain is paying out money left ,right and centre to these other countries.we are a small nation and now that other Europe countries are to join we will have huge numbers of people we do not want, any more and britain will sink. when they come inthey don't comform to any british laws.the old yardage is when in Rome do as the romans do.most parties are guttlus to say anything . when we catch illegals here it takes years and money to get them out.our law is being changed by euro burocrats and for one I don't want it.

The E.U is a sinking ship of failed bankers and third-world immigrants.

Hopefully Eastern Europe will turn away from Strasbourg and return to Moscow for leadership.

Hope that serbia get this note and join Iceland. Becouse EU is nazi reich of moronized stupid europeans under german dictate and nothing else..It is intro to NWO and Serbia has nothing to do with croatians and germanians and other perverted nations od eu

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Want_an_Independent_European_body_of_inquiry_to_investigate_Banking_scandal_in_Ireland_1/?copy