‘A modern-day Icelandic saga’: Political places and negotiating spaces at the northern frontier of ‘EUrope’

Abstract

In this paper we explore the current politico-economic tensions surrounding Iceland’s application for EU membership provoked by the state’s financial trauma of 2008. Through access to high level diplomats, politicians and EU Commission staff involved in preparing and negotiating Icelandic accession to the EU, we examine the difficulties for both sides of overcoming the country’s long-standing antipathy towards European political integration and appeasing the vociferous sectoral interests, especially in farming and fisheries, ranged against membership. The significance of this application far outstrips the size of this small island state since Iceland’s relationship with ‘EUrope’ is long-standing and complex. This national drama is given greater political salience as it is projected against the backdrop of ‘EUrope’s own existential struggles over the post-1945 political project of integration currently underway. Ultimately the saga of Iceland’s membership of the EU may be a relatively short one if Iceland refuses ‘EUrope’, which would effectively mark the final frontier of ‘EUropean’ expansion northwards. This would also mark a distinct stage in the history of ‘European ‘external relations; a candid assessment by a small island state of the value of adopting the structures and policies of an alleged ‘New ‘EUrope’.