European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels have decided that Iceland will receive no preferential treatment in negotiations for membership of the European Union. Sweden, the current chair of the EU, added that other potential members, such as Serbia and Croatia, must not be forgotten.

It could therefore be 18 months before negotiations for Iceland’s EU membership can start. Before that can happen, the European Commission must also first assess how well the country is prepared to begin talks.

The Netherlands and the United Kingdom have stressed that they want the problems surrounding the Icesave brand to take a prominent role in the negotiations.

Icesave was an online savings brand of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki. When Landsbanki collapsed at the end of 2008, Dutch and British savers discovered that their Icesave accounts had been frozen. Their governments compensated them for their losses. Both governments now want Iceland to pay back that money before it can be admitted to the EU.

Iceland applied to join the union after suffering heavily from the global economic crisis. Advocates for membership believe that joining the EU and adopting the euro would add stability to Iceland’s economy.

Photo of Landsbanki logo by Brian @ HKG (flickr)