Olli Rehn overhandigt IJsland uitgebreide toetredingsvragenlijst (en)
Iceland's prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, was presented on Tuesday (8 September) with an extensive questionnaire by European enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn i, which will form the basis of assessing the country's ability to meet EU membership obligations.
The survey of the North Atlantic nation contains some 2,000 questions covering 33 accession chapters.
How Reykjavik responds will frame the drafting of an opinion on Iceland's EU membership application by the European Commission, which will then be submitted to EU member states.
"Receiving the questionnaire marks yet another step by Iceland on its journey towards full EU membership," said Ms Sigurdardottir.
"Iceland is already an active participant in European co-operation as a full member of the EU's single market and the Schengen Agreement, and a founding member of Nato and the OSCE. We are well prepared and believe we will be able to submit our answers to the EU within a reasonably short time," she added.
The country's various ministries and other government authorities will now start preparing answers to the questionnaire, which is to be concluded in the coming months.
The commission has set a deadline of 16 November for the 'quiz' to be filled out and handed in, according to foreign minister Ossur Skarphedinsson.
Commissioner Rehn was in Iceland on Tuesday to hand over the papers. He is to meet with Mr Skarphedinsson and finance minister Steingrimur Sigfusson on the trip. On Wednesday, Mr Rehn is to deliver a lecture at the University of Iceland.
Separately, Joseph Stiglitz, the past winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, is also in Iceland at the moment, and has suggested that the country could get by without depending on the International Monetary Fund or loans from Nordic countries, as it has done since the bottom fell out of its economy last winter.
Speaking to Rikisutvarpio RUV, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, Mr Stiglitz said that dependence on the IMF had been successful up until now, but that this may no longer be necessary.
"It may have been a cornerstone at a critical moment and they were perfectly right about that, given that the government of the time was the government that had made all the mistakes, was floundering," he said, according to RUV, following his participation in a symposium with a group of Icelandic economists at the University of Iceland.
He added, praising the international financial institution, that the IMF had been fairer in its dealings with the island nation than it has been in the past with other countries in similar situations.
Mr Stiglitz, who the government is believed to be attempting to headhunt as an advisor, met with eight Icelandic government ministers yesterday.
Iceland formally submitted its application on 23 July and hopes to join the EU by 2012.