EU SHOCK CLAIM: Iceland would have gone 'BANKRUPT' if it had been part of the bloc
ICELAND successfully survived a sovereign bankruptcy and collapse in 2008 thanks to being outside of the EU as it allowed the country to “recuperate, despite the proportionate vastness of their banks’ liabilities”, campaigner and MEP Daniel Hannan claimed in his bombshell book.
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Iceland is not a member of the European Union but it does have access to the bloc’s single market through its membership of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and European Economic Area (EEA). This means goods, services and people can move from the EU into Iceland and vice versa. The UK was a founding member of EFTA in 1960, but left to join the EEC common market in 1973.
Last month, Amber Rudd became the first senior minister to publicly break from the official Downing Street line when she said an EEA deal could provide a way to break the parliamentary deadlock if Mrs May’s deal is killed in the Commons.
A growing number of MPs are said to be warming to the idea of this arrangement as a way to break the parliamentary deadlock.
In his 2016 book "What Next: How to get the best from Brexit", campaigner and Conservative MEP Daniel Hannah suggested that the very reason why Iceland was able to “recuperate” from its financial crisis was because it had never been a member of the EU.
The MEP noted: “Most people in EEA states are content with their current arrangements.
“Icelanders could see that being outside the EU has allowed them to recuperate, despite the proportionate vastness of their banks’ liabilities.”
The Conservative politician added that the former Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson of the centrist Progressive Party once said that “recovery could have not happened” if Iceland had been part of the EU.
Mr Gunnlaugsson reportedly said: “We might have gone the other way and become a bankrupt country.
“Icelanders had only to look at Ireland, Greece and other EU states to see what their fate might have been.”
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Last month, Iceland's foreign minister told Emily Maitlis on BBC Newsnight that he welcomed the idea of the UK joining EFTA or EEA.
Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson said: “We would be very positive towards the idea of the UK joining EFTA or the EEA.
“Of course, I am just speaking for myself and we are not going to interfere with UK politics but you are the ones who established EFTA.
“The debate was the same then – you wanted to trade with the rest of the world, not be a part of the customs union and that’s why you established EFTA.”
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