Iceland : The 28th member state of the European Union ? – Le Taurillon
Iceland is facing a major decision, with a referendum on their potential EU membership, which will be held by 2027. This debate touches upon issues such as immigration, economics and sovereignty. But…
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Be wise, keep your currency.
Shengen would be cool for foreigners but i don't see what Iceland has to gain with it or anything else, really.
Iceland is already part of Schengen, and the EEA.
Why keep national currency? Having one currency across the entire Bloc has the advantage that you don't have to exchange currencies.
With all the disadvantages, namely you lose monetary sovereignty and just because it's the same currency doesn't mean it's worth the same across the bloc.
Iceland has a small economy and its biggest trade partner is the EU, they're already a member of EFTA. The Euro would benefit them more than harming them, the real issue was always fishing rights and legislation
Not how it works. Euro isn't just a straight upgrade for many countries. See Croatia for a recent example - a lot of inflation and increased prices after adoption.
hey’re already a member of EFTA.
Then they have nothing to gain with joining the euro.
Voting rights?
EFTA is practically "I'm in the EU but cannot vote along" which is a pretty big disadvantage, if you ask me.
I am not sure the EU still allows membership without switching to the Euro
Country has to make a promise to switch to Euro, but there is no deadline whatsoever :)
Oh, it certainly does. There's ERM II, but the deadline is lax.
Dunno either...UK did it, maybe the EU changed the rules so they can better control the states, wouldn't surprise me. Iceland cold pull a Norway though, probably a better approach.
It's literally a 5 minute Google search.
The UK and Denmark joined before the Euro was a thing, and thus, were allowed to stay out. No other country that joined after 1999 ever got an opt out, because this is not legal anymore.
Poland doesn't have the euro and can basically stall forever with no consequences. What are they going to do, throw em out? For having their own currency?
This question gets asked every time. The official position is that noone is allowed to stall forever (except denmark). Unofficially it has been recognized that Sweden joined before the euro and they're seen as exceptional compared to Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Romania. These four countries are the focus of the ECB, but, to answer your question, since none of them meet the economic criteria yet, there hasn't been much push from Frankfurt, since their economies aren't stable enough for monetary union.
Sweden and Hungary as well. But who knows if the "no consequences" part stays that way forever.
Who'll vote on it though? It'll just be vetoed.