Georgian Parliament Speaker: Iceland referendum shows “collapse” of Brussels’ current political leadership

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Monday described the results of Iceland’s referendum on EU accession talks as a “collapse” of the current political leadership in Brussels, arguing that the vote demonstrated growing distrust toward the European Union.

Papuashvili's comments came after Iceland held a referendum on August 29, in which voters rejected the resumption of negotiations on EU membership.

According to reports, Iceland held a referendum on EU membership on August 29, with 52.8% of voters opposing the resumption of membership negotiations.

“The referendum result clearly demonstrates one thing: Brussels has lost the trust of the populations of various countries. This is precisely the distrust toward Brussels and the European Union that was reflected in the referendum result, when the people of Iceland rejected the resumption of negotiations”, Papuashvili said.

He stressed that Icelanders had rejected not EU membership itself, but even the resumption of negotiations on the issue.

“They did not even agree to resume negotiations, before any decision had been made on whether they should join the EU or not. The level of distrust toward the EU is so high that they rejected even the resumption of negotiations”, he said.

Papuashvili said the distrust was linked to concerns that EU membership could require Iceland to surrender part of its sovereignty to Brussels and potentially accept decisions that could harm its interests.

“Marta Kos has said that she is ready with a package of proposals to reform the decision-making process within the EU, and it has been announced that a member state could simply be deprived of its voting rights. The Icelandic people look at this and think that if such a step is taken today, they can no longer trust that tomorrow a decision could be made to take away their vote and make decisions without them”, Papuashvili said.

He argued that Iceland’s decision was particularly significant given the country’s existing ties with the EU and NATO.

“This is a collapse of the current political leadership in Brussels: a country that is highly integrated with the EU, that is a NATO member, and whose population does not want not only membership, but even the resumption of negotiations. They see a risk even here. They believe they could enter into something that would harm their interests. This is the result we predicted”, Papuashvili said.