The Blue Economy & Could Iceland join the EU?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Taking stock with Susan Hayes Culleton.
With Nifty Business, the fleet management specialists. Keeping your business fleet moving with service you can count on.
This is Newstalk.
Well, hello and welcome to Taking Stock. I'm Susan Hayes-Cullerton and this is the show that looks at business and economics from a wider perspective. Coming up on today's programme, how big is the blue economy and where does Ireland's marine territory sit in the world? Siri, powered by Gemini, took centre stage this week, but why are Europeans underwhelmed? Plus, could Iceland soon be joining the EU? You can email the show, takingstockatnewstalk.com or you can message me on socials at Susan Hayes-Cullerton. So for my explainer this week, I wanted to pick up on something Christine Lagarde said after announcing the ECB interest rate increase on Thursday. She said the major energy shock is lasting longer than initially expected.
So that's not a surprise. But she says it's now beginning to spill over into the wider economy. Now that reference to spillover is significant. Because if energy prices had simply risen and that was that, which was the case last quarter, she might have left interest rates as they were. However, and I'm quoting the ECB press release now, staff have revised up their baseline projection for inflation in 26 and 27 owing to a higher path for energy prices which to some extent is expected to feed into food, goods and services inflation. That's the reason that the rate particularly was risen. That is the difference. So that spillover effect has led to her decision and that's the one to watch out for when taking the pulse of the mood music of the ECB in the months ahead.
So when you're looking out for how The ECB is going to make decisions. It's not just about one element of inflation. It's about how it spills over into others. Now, while we might have been focusing a lot on the EU's expansion to the east and, of course, a relentless focus on Brexit over the past 10 years, the real change which may happen to the EU is occurring at its northern fringe. Norway, Iceland and Greenland are currently having quiet conversations about how, and more pertinently, where they see their future. I'm delighted now to be joined by Jack Power, the EU correspondent for the Irish Times, to give us a whistle-stop tour of the word on the street in the Nordics.
What is the significance of the blue economy for Ireland?
Right, Jack, big question to start off, first of all. Will you tell us the political and economic relationship of each of Norway, Iceland and Greenland with the EU as it stands?
Yeah, so basically Greenland, for example, is still considered a territory of Denmark. So that kind of governs most of its relations. But when it comes to Norway and Iceland, they're part of what's known as the European Economic Area. So it's something that, you know, we probably don't hear too much about, but it means that effectively they're part of the EU's single market and common economic area. As a result, they're very kind of enmeshed in the EU system. They follow the vast heap of the EU rules and regulations that basically allows it to be part, allows both of them to be part of the single market. And so what's interesting now is there's a bit of a debate in Iceland about maybe going a step further and saying, well, will we have a conversation about joining the EU full in?
If they did, then they would be either influenced by or have an influence on things like fisheries. And we need to get to that in particular. Agriculture, foreign and security policy.
Could Iceland be joining the EU soon?
And even if they were to go further into the Eurozone, then membership of the Euro, interest rates being influenced by the ECB, etc. So this isn't a small decision, no more than any other country would be, despite the fact that they're further along in the EA. Would that be an accurate way of describing things? Or am I oversimplifying?
No, no, absolutely. And I think it's worth remembering that for Iceland, and it's actually something that people mightn't know, but they were well on the way to joining the EU a good few many years ago.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:26
2
What is the significance of the blue economy for Ireland?
2:26–3:40
3
Could Iceland be joining the EU soon?
3:40–14:57
4
What are the implications of Iceland's potential EU membership?
14:57–24:00
5
How has Iceland's past influenced its current EU discussions?
24:00–43:47
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Taking Stock
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