EP President: Not a Good Time for Expansion

Commissioner Olli Rehn recently said that if Iceland decided to join, their accession could be fast-tracked, but Poettering disagrees.

The president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering disagreed on proposals that Iceland’s acceptance into the European Union be fast-tracked.

In an interview that was published by the Finnish newspaper Aamulehti, Poettering said that this is not a good time for thinking about expanding the European Union.

He reminded that the Lisbon Treaty has not yet been ratified in all countries, which should reform EU institutions so that they would function efficiently with more members.

The European commissioner for expansion Olli Rehn recently said that if Iceland decided to join the EU, negotiations could be fast-tracked, because a country that is a member of the European economic region is in question, which already fulfils a certain number of criteria, and that Iceland could enter the EU at the same time as Croatia.