Wilfried Martens, the President of the European People's Party (EPP, Europe's centre-right political family), has welcomed the start of Iceland’s EU accession negotiations, following today’s decision of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC).

“On behalf of the EPP, I warmly welcome today’s start of Iceland’s EU accession negotiations. Iceland’s accession will be important since it will strengthen the EU’s Nordic dimension and the European project at-large,” underlined the EPP President.

“I believe that Iceland, with its longstanding democratic institutions and European traditions, will merit a place in the European Union family. Needless to say, the EPP will be following closely the accession negotiation process and we will also intensify our contacts with like-minded political actors and opinion-makers in Iceland,” Wilfried Martens added.

Note to editors:

The EPP is the largest and most influential European-level political party of the centre-right, which currently includes 73 member-parties from 39 countries, the Presidents of the Commission, Council, and Parliament, 15 EU and 5 non-EU heads of state and government, 13 members of the European Commission and the largest Group in the European Parliament.

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