Iceland is planning to formally withdraw its EU application, the country\u2019s prime minister told the national radio station. Reykjavik also wants to lift capitals controls imposed on Iceland by Brussels after a financial crisis hit the country in 2008.<\/p>\n
Despite expected public protests, Iceland is going to make a second attempt to withdraw its application to become a member state of the European Union, Prime Minister Sigmundur Davi\u00f0 Gunnlaugsson said in an interview with Icelandic radio station Bylgjan.<\/p>\n
\u201cParticipating in EU talks isn\u2019t really valid anymore,\u201d<\/em> PM Gunnlaugsson said as quoted by the Reykjav\u00edk Grapevine.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth due to changes in the European Union and because it\u2019s not in line with the policies of the ruling government to accept everything that the last government was willing to accept. Because of that, we\u2019re back at square one,\u201d<\/em> he said on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n The EU accession negotiations are \u201cat square one as all the work on it that had been carried out before was in fact obsolete,\u201d<\/em> Iceland\u2019s mbl.is media outlet quoted the country\u2019s PM as saying.<\/p>\n Iceland applied for EU membership in July 2009, at a time when the global economic crisis was unraveling. By February 2010, the European Commission produced a favorable answer and accession negotiations began in July the same year.<\/p>\n The negotiations came to a stalemate in April 2013, when the election in Iceland was won by the centrist Progress Party, and the conservative Independence Party. When Progress Party\u2019s Gunnlaugsson became prime minister, he froze negotiations with the EU in May 2013, largely because of the fish catch quotas insisted on by Brussels \u2013 something Iceland\u2019s fishing industry would never agree to.<\/p>\n Today Iceland, with its population of about 325,000, has EU ‘candidate country’ status and is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Schengen area, and is an EU partner promoting cooperation in northern Europe \u2013 all this without voting rights in the EU. Two thirds of Iceland’s foreign trade is conducted with EU member states.<\/p>\n