Warming up for the EU. Iceland and European Integration

An Analysis of the Factors Contributing to the Changing Perception of Iceland's Political Elites Toward Membership in the European Union

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,0, University of Hannover (Institut für Politische Wissenschaft), language: English, abstract: The overall aim of this work is to analyze and explain the change of behavior of the Icelandic political elites toward European integration, with specific focus on the domestic and external, political and economic developments that contributed to this change and eventually led to Iceland's EU accession bid in 2009. To this end, the author has chosen to specifically focus on the time period from the outbreak of the financial crisis in Iceland in 2008 to the day of Iceland's official EU application in July 2009. Nevertheless, historical developments that are relevant for properly explaining Iceland's behavior toward European integration have been included where appropriate.