German Parliament approves opening accession talks with Iceland
On 22 April 2010, the German Parliament approved that the EU would start accession talks with Iceland. This is the first time that a national parliament has voted on the application of an aspirant member of the EU, but the Bundestag adopted new legislation to that end after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
Representatives of all political parties participated in the debate and they agreed that Iceland was a deep-rooted democracy that fulfilled all the Copenhagen Criteria. German parliamentarians also agreed that Iceland had various things to contribute to European integration, such as in the field of sustainable fisheries and renewable energy, particularly as regards geothermal energy. Finally, in the Bundestag debate the growing strategic importance of the Arctic was discussed in the light of EU´s interests in the area.