Iceland: difficult negotiations in sight

摘要

That being so, whale hunting will be one of the hot topics in negotiations for Iceland's accession to the European Union once the environment chapter is opened. The principle of a ban on this hunting is, in fact, part of the acquis commu-nautaire intended to be accepted and applied by all candidate countries. The point was highlighted by the evaluation report for Iceland's application, made public on 20 June by the European Commission. Reykjavik - whose hunters, specialised in fin whale hunting, granted themselves a quota of 150 for 2010 - will attempt to negotiate exemptions. However, the subject is weighing down the situation with negotiations already predicted to be very difficult on financial services and fishing.