10/31/2009

Icelandic government gives answers to EU questions

The Icelandic government has delivered its answers to a total of 2,500 questions about Iceland, its economy, politics and society in general to the European Union. The answers are a part of the Iceland's accession process. The government was in a great hurry to deliver the answers and denied a popular demand in Iceland that the questions and the answers to them would be translated into Icelandic so all Icelanders could examine them regardsless of knowledge in languages. The questions and answers were in English but according to critics not in any ordinary English but a kind of a Brussels-beaurocratic version of it.

The government had previously promised that the whole acession process would be transparent and the Icelandic people would be kept informed about every step of it. This is not seen by critics as a good start. It might be mentioned that among those who called for an Icelandic translation of the questions and the answers were organisations of both those in favour of EU membership and those who reject it