Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

461–470 of 495 posts

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#461

Post by mathattack »

solidr53 wrote: post #459
mathattack wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iceland had a debt crisis from 2008-2011. Part of the issue is the currency is small relative to global markets, so investments/speculation/shocks from elsewhere have an outsize impact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932011_Icelandic_fi...

To be fair it wasn’t just Iceland? It was a global crash. At least that was my perception at the time. But we recovered from it very quickly, and is often talked about. But we had currency exchange restrictions for quite some time to fix it. It worked.

Yes. For Iceland it was different than the Mortgage crisis elsewhere. (It was currency gambling)

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#462

Post by solidr53 »

surgical_fire wrote: post #158
shrubble wrote: post #109

I think Iceland will find that compliance with the EU regulations would be very expensive and not practical, but that’s for them to decide.

Iceland is in EEA. EEA is already EU-lite, where they have to comply with plenty of EU regulations, don't get a vote on those regulations, but get some exemptions (such as their fishing thing). Other two countries in EEA are Norway and Liechtenstein.

The fishing thing is almost 40% of our export.

We cannot even keep up with the EU-lite regulations today.

But anyways, the vote is most certainly, but close, no.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#463

Post by vidarh »

bArray wrote: post #441
vidarh wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vote was to leave or stay - there was no mandate for or against a specific relationship to the EU before even considering how drastically opinions have shifted since.

> no mandate for or against a specific relationship to the EU Then do you not support another vote that provides this option? > how drastically opinions have shifted since There is a way to conduct a poll that represents the engaged electorate - have another vote.

I'd fully support a vote if rejoining was one of the options. It's pretty clear from polls that support to rejoin is far stronger than the support for Brexit was (in June, it was 55% for vs. 34% against, vs. 59% in support of a closer relationship and 20% against, and 29% supporting the current relationship).

But in the meantime it is also entirely unambiguous that there is a clear mandate for a closer relationship - the gap is so huge (much larger than the support for the current status quo ever was) that there's no real need for another vote for that and voters can punish parties that support it at the next general election.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#464

Post by ViewTrick1002 »

inigyou wrote: post #458
ViewTrick1002 wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course they are rivalrous. Contracts change, boats get laid up and people are forced to change employers. You can imagine on popular routes where you get to keep the proceeds that you instead pay for the right to operate it. What’s the difference to paying for being allowed a quota to fish in the waters said ferry service runs a passenger service in?

Why would there be a limited number of ferry licenses?

Limited port capacity? Erosion? Limit disturbance of wild life?

Either way it is a public resource. On one side access to a countries fishing grounds to make money from it. On the other side access to a countries tax money to make money from it.

I get a feeling that you think fishermen should have some special heritage rights guaranteeing large profit margins rather than having to pay the public for the access to a shared resource.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#465

Post by happymellon »

amenghra wrote: post #150
Beretta_Vexee wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the factors leading them to reconsider EU membership is monetary policy. The Icelandic króna is a very small currency that fluctuates considerably. Switching to the euro would protect them from exchange rate risks with their main trading partner. One solution for Iceland would be to join the eurozone without becoming a member of the EU, as Kosovo and Montenegro have done. However, this would only be desirable…

I love this diagram: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1tda6wl/european_in... There are so many treaties besides EU.

I don't, this is so hard to read. What is the blue box underneath the "updated"?

The left is "Europe" but below isn't labeled.

This is just unnecessarily hard to read.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#467

Post by xg15 »

ekidd wrote: post #7

> The No campaign fears losing control over Iceland's prized fishing grounds under the EU's Common Fisheries Policy and has vowed never to share the country's waters with anyone. Brussels has indicated Iceland could earn some kind of exemption, but it is considered potentially the biggest obstacle to any agreement. As noted in the article, Iceland's fishing industry makes up something like 40% of their exports. Which…

> Which is the only way a tiny island nation can afford essential imports.

Shouldn't the imports become cheaper once they are in the EU single market though?

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#468

Post by 1718627440 »

troupo wrote: post #430
1718627440 wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that Norway and Switzerland are somehow completely separate from the EU. Except that that wasn't the discussion at all.

> Except that that wasn't the discussion at all. Quote: "I feel the UK were wrong to leave but Norway and Switzerland have a fantastic overall quality of life without and I'm not sure the benefits of membership unless you are financially poor country." They are not "without". They are integrated through and through.

But they are not IN the EU, and the UK doing a Brexit (aka. leaving the EU) does not make them incapable of having the same arrangement as Norway and Switzerland.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#469

Post by 1718627440 »

philistine wrote: post #450
1718627440 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's different from not having an own currency in use at all.

Not significantly. Your point that only failed states decide to use another nation's currency is automatically a failed state is simply untrue. It can be a marker, but it's not an automatic mark. Montenegro is not a failed state.

> It can be a marker, but it's not [...] automatic

Yeah, I think that is what it 'being a mark for ...' means. Otherwise it would be 'a property of ...' .

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#470

Post by spiderfarmer »

dosisking wrote: post #42
spiderfarmer wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you define cult?

A cult is a small group driven by extreme devotion to a charismatic leader, a specific idea, or an unorthodox set of beliefs. In this case, the 'small group' is the unelected European Commission (EC) bureaucracy who is desperate to retain power at any cost.

So they are both inside and outside the 'cult' at the same time.
Post reply on HN