A leading international expert on European Law, Dr Carl Baudenbacher, gave a lecture on Iceland and the EU in the Independence Hall at the Eastern Square (Austurvöllur) in Reykjavík on Monday 10 August 2026. The lecture was organised by the Icelandic Research Centre for Politics and Economics at the University of Iceland, RNH and RSE, the Social and Economic Research Centre, and was sponsored by the movement Áfram Ísland and the Public Book Club which published a book by Dr Baudenbacher and his daughter, Dr Laura M Baudenbacher, also an expert on European Law, Iceland Before the EU Referendum. The meeting was chaired by Dr Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, former Professor of Politics at the University of Iceland and President of Iceland in 1996–2016. The University’s festivities hall had originally been booked for the event, as Dr Baudenbacher has given lectures there and been a visiting professor in European Law at the University. But the rector of the University, Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir, cancelled the booking, giving the reason that the movement Áfram Ísland had (with the Public Book Club) advertised the event.
Baudenbacher said that the referendum on 29 August was not about Europe or isolation, because Iceland was already deeply integrated into Europe through her membership in the European Economic Area, EEA, and in the European Free Trade Association, EFTA. The referendum was whether to continue in the EEA or join the European Union, the EU. Baudenbacher argued that Iceland would have negligible influence in the EU, relatively much less than in the EEA. The EU was confronted by many difficulties, not least in Germany. As an EU member state, Iceland would have to transfer control of her fisheries, agriculture, foreign trade, and monetary affairs to Brussels, whereas these sectors were exempted from the EEA agreement. At present, the EFTA Court decided on cases, but if Iceland joined the EU, judicial power would be transferred to the Court of Justice of the European Union which was known for its tendency to support the European Commission. It was not a plausible argument that Iceland had to join the EU for security reasons. She already had a defence treaty with the United States, and changes in long-term foreign policy were not made on the basis of comments by a US President whose bark was worse than his bite.
