Iceland has
postponed plans to withdraw its application for European Union membership, the
government said Monday.
The island
nation's euroskeptic center-right government announced on February 21 a draft
bill to retract Iceland's 2010 EU membership application without holding a
referendum.
But pro-EU
members of parliament have sought to block a motion giving the government the
right to withdraw the application.
Foreign
Affairs Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson told newspaper Morgunbladid that the
parliament would return to the issue after the summer recess.
“I did, in
fact, expect the government parties to get the motion through. But there were
bigger and more important matters we had to finish," he said towards to
close of the parliamentary session.
"The
government is not in any negotiations with the EU and does not intend to (be),
so I only consider it a formality.”
Opinion
polls suggest that a majority of Icelanders want a referendum to be held on EU
membership, as initially promised by the governing Progressive Party and
Independence Party.
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