Free Republic

Eurozone failures mean Iceland should stay out of the EU, its prime minister told EU Observer. She would also quit NATO if she had her say. “I don’t think we should enter the EU right now. I don’t think there is any reason to apply,” Katrin Jakobsdottir said in an interview with this website, as Iceland’s new government prepared to celebrate its first anniversary in power. “Personally, I’m critical towards the economic policies of the EU — the creation of the eurozone without any real centralized policies on taxes or fiscal policies,” she said. “The European Central Bank has become...

Regulations demanding that at least 40 percent of a Norwegian company's board members must be women may be stopped by European authorities. The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) watchdog group ESA (EFTA Surveillance Authority) is now starting a formal investigation of the Norwegian regulations, newspaper Nationen reports. Norwegian authorities have threatened firms with fines if they do not meet the 40 percent women mark in their corporate boards. "We have not decided if the law is in order or not but we have asked for more information in order to investigate if the law is in accord with EEA (European...

If you ask an MP from any party where he stands on the EU, he is likely to say something like: "I want a Europe of democratic nations, working together, but keeping their own identities". Fine. Who doesn't? The trouble is that such a Europe is not on the menu.When we politicians talk about "a Europe of nations", we are being both presumptuous and dishonest: presumptuous, because it is not in our gift to dictate how other countries relate one to another; and dishonest, because we are holding out to our electorate the prospect of something that is not on...