Opening of the Conference on EU Regional and Sectoral Support Strategic Planning
Operating Structures and Lessons learned - Kópavogur, Iceland, 15-16 April 2010.
Translation from Icelandic
Distinguished audience,
I would like to again, and this time in Icelandic, welcome you to this conference on EU's regional and sectoral support. We take advantage of technology, as this conference is broadcast online and I know that all over Iceland groups and individuals interested in the subject have gathered to follow the conference on the web. On behalf of us present here in Kopavogur, I would like to welcome those of you watching from a far.
Ahead are two days packed with information and content, where issues of great importance will be addressed. Regional and employment issues affect all Icelanders and are perhaps now more pressing than ever before.
Icelanders have never before been faced with permanent unemployment, to any extent. I myself am of a generation where people could normally choose between jobs, and life often consisted of having 2-3 jobs during challenging times when young families were securing their first home and investing in their future. The collapse of the banks, with all its gigantic consequences, has changed this.
Although predictions of experts have not been accurate, and unemployment has fortunately been considerably lower than predicted at the start of the collapse, the fact remains that over the next years we will need drastic measures in the field of employment. These are today´s challenges.
We can not accept that 15 thousand Icelanders are without employment. Unemployment must never become a permanent feature in Iceland. This is why this conference is a timely one, which in fact resonates directly with the most pressing issues of today.
Employment also has a direct link with regional affairs. Rural areas must have the same opportunities to retain their people as the capital area. I say this as a former minister of regional policy, who himself comes from the centre of Reykjavik although a man of the country at heart. Nothing in my career through four governments has given me greater pleasure than working on regional issues. There are few things that I am as proud of as the fact that in my last year as minister of regional policy, the trend was reversed for the first time and more people moved to the countryside than from it. So I am no beginner when it comes to regional policy and employment!
This conference here today is a welcomed opportunity to get to know and learn about the EU's regional and sectoral support, how we want to prepare ourselves for joining the EU and to discuss trends in our neighboring countries.
Dear guests,
The last few days have been eventful and we have all been closely watching the debate on the investigative commission's report on the collapse of the Icelandic banks. The report was full of surprises.
But the Special Investigative Commission's report is a matter of reckoning with the past. It focuses on what went wrong, if and how laws were broken and who are responsible. Now that the report is out we must show the responsibility to review it carefully and draw the right lessons. This is what we are doing in the Government, in Parliament and throughout the society.
Iceland's application to join the EU is about the future. To determine what membership in the EU really entails, to clarify the overall benefit it would bring the Icelandic nation and how the fundamental interests of Iceland can be guaranteed in an accession agreement.
I am certain that the upcoming accession talks will be successful and that membership, if approved by the Icelandic people, will proof to be the right step. There are many reasons for this conclusion.
Firstly, the EU has always welcomed new member states and they have been successful in protecting their fundamental interests in accession treaties. The EU has always shown flexibility and ingenuity in meeting the needs of new member states. Regardless if the issue is agriculture in arctic areas or in the Alps, real estate and summerhouses in Jutland, or fisheries in Malta – in all instances it has been possible to find a solution that meets the needs and interests of all parties concerned.
There is not a doubt in my mind that we Icelanders can conclude an agreement with the EU that will ensure that Iceland will continue to have a prosperous fishing industry, a flourishing agriculture and that would provide us with a strong international currency. We have a stronger position in the upcoming accession talks than most realize.
According to the rules of the European Union no member state has a claim to fishing rights in Icelandic waters. The Icelandic fishing industry is very strong and competitive.
Unquestionably, Icelandic agriculture enjoys a unique status. It is environmentally friendly and Icelandic farmers produce great products that I am certain not only Icelanders will continue to buy, but also consumers across Europe. In an unreliable world, people living in remotely situated areas and in periphery regions must be guaranteed food security. This gives us a strong position. There is no doubt in my mind, taking account of the upcoming changes in the world following agreements of the World Trade Organisation, that Icelandic agriculture will be better off inside the EU than outside.
Secondly, prophesies of disaster and propaganda based on fear have never had any foundation when it comes to European integration and Iceland. It was thought that membership of EFTA in 1970 and the EEA more than two decades later would result in the loss of our independence, that the country would become scarcely populated and poor, that we would loose land and control over our marine resources. None of this has become true. The development was quite to the contrary.
Last but not least the European Union has achieved significant results in guaranteeing stability in its member states, with low inflation and interests, a healthy business environment and lasting and moderate economic growth.
I am of the opinion, given the serious problems we are now facing in Iceland after the collapse, that there is now a bigger reason than ever before to determine what membership entails.
When we look to the future, we can say that Már Guðmundsson, the Governor of the Central Bank, gets to the core of this issue in an interesting interview with a local newspaper earlier this week. There, he says that there is a design flaw in the Icelandic system and that in the future we have the choice of the Euro or the Krona with permanent currency restrictions.
The application for membership is therefore an essential factor in the rebuilding of Iceland. We need a more solid framework for our employment and economic activity. We need long term stability for families and companies, and we need to break the vicious cycle of inflation, interest and indexation, which overburdens everything. We need to rid ourselves of the “upheaval economy”.
The governing parties remain strongly committed to the fundamental position to undertake the accession talks, conclude an agreement and allow the nation to have the final say to the in a referendum. There position remains unchanged.
Let us therefore join forces to ensure that the accession process will be to our credit and that we will have an open and democratic debate on the pros and cons of membership. Let us respect each others' opinions and discuss matters from the viewpoint of what is best for Iceland both in the short and long term.
The EU is no panacea, but membership can be of great benefit in our effort to build a new Iceland, a new future.
I wish you a good debate and exchange of views at this important conference.