Iceland can wait and see on EU membership

The EU's ambassador in Reykjavik says Iceland could put its EU membership bid on hold instead of retracting it, publicly contradicting the Icelandic prime minister.

Matthias Brinkmann, a German diplomat, mentioned during an interview with Icelandic public broadcaster RUV on Wednesday the "precedent" of Malta, which joined the EU in 2004, after putting its bid on hold while a Euro-sceptic government was in office.

"So in a way that is possible, but of course not for an unlimited period of time, that I think is evident," Brinkmann said.

"The people in Brussels are politicians and they understand how a democratic country works, that there can be changes of government."

The day before, Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson told RUV that his government only had two options: resuming the accession talks, which he rules out, or dropping the bid the country presented in 2010, which he intends to do through a vote in parliament.

"We have been told clearly again and again by all concerned parties, the Commissioner for Enlargement and leaders and spokespeople of the European Union, that there is no option to keep these things up in the air, we have to say on or off," Gunnlaugsson said.

Iceland's Euro-sceptic centre-right government announced on February 21 a draft bill to retract the EU membership application without holding a referendum that the coalition parties had promised during the election campaign last year.

An opinion poll published a week later showed that 80 per cent of Icelanders wanted to decide in a referendum and thousands of demonstrators took to Reykjavik's streets several days in a row.

Nevertheless, a debate on the bill began in parliament after nearly a week of political wrangling.

It was later suspended for a scheduled parliamentary recess, and is expected to continue on Monday.