Analysis of the Causes of Iceland’s EU Membership Application: A Gradual Shift or a Sudden Turnover?

Abstract

Iceland was the last Nordic country to apply for membership in the
European Union (EU). The position of the country, which refused to join the
European integration process for a long period of time, is supposed to
change in the near future. In July 2009, the country filed an application to
join the EU and it is expected that by the end of 2012 Iceland will join the
EU. Iceland’s long-term resistance to EU membership attracted considerable
scientific attention in previous decades. The first aim of this paper is to
confront these general observations with the processes and situations that
occurred in Iceland prior to its EU membership application and thus verify
the accuracy of the observations. The second aim of the article is to find out
whether Iceland’s application for EU membership can be explained in the
framework of these observations or whether it follows from the
consequences of the economic recession. In this context, the findings of
our research support strong relevance and importance of economic
recession for explanation of change in Icelandic position towards the EU
membership.