External Relations - Enlargement

Iceland

Iceland started its accession negotiations in 2010, following a relevant decision from the European Council in June of the same year.

Thanks to the high level of convergence with the community acquis, due to Iceland’s participation in the European Economic Space and in the Schengen Agreement, the negotiation process moved ahead at a satisfactory pace until December 2012. Of a total of thirty-five Chapters, twenty-seven opened, of which eleven closed provisionally. However, in 2013 the government of Iceland decided to suspend the accession negotiations, arguing that, in the accession negotiations, the country would not be able to secure clauses of exemption from the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy. The dialogue in Iceland on the future of the country’s relations with the EU is ongoing.