The issue of whether Iceland should reimburse the UK and the Netherlands for 3.9bn euro lost by British and Dutch savers in the Icesave crash is a bilateral one, and it should not prevent EU leaders from giving their go-ahead at the end of March 2010 for the start of EU-Iceland accession negotiations, members of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee said at a meeting with EU Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle.

Some MEPs were sceptical about whether Reykjavik really wishes to join the EU, a European Parliament account of the meeting, held on March 8 2010, said.
 
Icelandic voters overwhelmingly rejected a deal to repay debts to Britain and the Netherlands for their losses in the 2008 collapse of Iceland's private online bank, Icesave, the Voice of America reported earlier.

Britain and the Netherlands compensated about 340 000 of their citizens who lost the money they had in Icesave.
 
The bill narrowly passed Iceland's parliament in December, but president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson refused to sign it, saying the terms of repayment were too harsh.
 
"Icesave is a bilateral file which should not have repercussions on accession" said Parliament's leading MEP on Iceland, Cristian Dan Preada of the centre-right EPP bloc, according to the European Parliament statement.

"The ball is now in the court of the Council which could open the negotiations before the end of this month" (i.e. the European Council of March 25-26), said Pat the Cope Gallagher, an an Irish Fianna Fáil member and chairperson of the EP delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and European Economic Area (EEA).
 
Elmar Brok, a German EPP MEP, said that Iceland is ideally located for energy supplies and said that only 33 per cent of Icelanders would support joining the EU.

"Can we negotiate with a population who is likely to say no in the end? The Norwegians told us no twice in the past!", Brok said, a view echoed by two Austrian MEPs, socialist Hannes Swoboda and Ulrike Lunacke of the Greens/EFA.
 
Füle said "the Commission takes note of the results of the referendum. This is a matter for the people of Iceland to decide. As such, the results of the referendum are quite distinct from Iceland's accession process. Icesave is a bilateral issue between Iceland and two member states".

Füle also recommended opening accession talks with Iceland.
 
However, "there will be no fast-track procedure, no shortcut to EU membership. The criteria that need to be fulfilled are the same for all applicant countries based on the 'own merits' principle. More substantial efforts will be needed to align with the acquis in areas that are not covered by the EEA Agreement, most notably in agriculture and rural development, fisheries and the environment," Füle said.
 
Bilateral disputes should not constitute an obstacle to progress towards accession, MEPs said in the November 2009 Albertini report on the 2009 enlargement strategy 2009 for the Western Balkans, Iceland and Turkey.