Visit of the Enlargement Commissioner, Stefan Füle

The Prime Minister today received the Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle in the Government House. 

They discussed the progress in the negotiations for accession of Iceland to the European Union.  Today in Brussels, two chapters were opened and closed in the negotiations, at the Intergovernmental Conference. The chapters relate to intellectual property rights and free movement of persons. This was in additon to the four chapters opened in the Intergovernmental Conference in June, where two chapters were closed at the same time.

The Prime Minister stated that she was very content with the negotiating process and that it was very important that communication in the negotiating process was frank and trust-based, both with the Commission and with the Member States, as the next few months would bring the opening of larger and more difficult chapters.

The Prime Minister and Commisioner for Enlargement gave the following joint statment:

We are content that the negotiating process for the accession of Iceland to the EU is progressing well.  The European Commission is an important and trusted partner, for both the Member States and Iceland in the organisation of this process and negotiations.  We have discussed further steps in the accession process and look forward to working together on opening challenging chapters, finding mutually satisfactory and beneficial solutions.