Iceland and Greenland Risk EU Sanctions

The European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee plans to discuss possible sanctions against Iceland and Greenland at a meeting September 4, according to the Iceland Monitor. This is due to the countries’ having increased their mackerel quotas.

“Our access to harbors could be closed, and they could try to close markets and more,” states Kristján Freyr Helgason, head of Iceland’s negotiating committee in the mackerel dispute.

The EU, the Faroe Islands and Norway, forming a group of coastal states, agreed in 2014 to divide the mackerel quota in the North Atlantic Ocean between them. Iceland, Greenland and Russia were not invited to the table.