Vice President of the Parliament of Montenegro Mr Branko Radulović paid an official visit to Iceland during the previous days. Speaker of the Icelandic Parliament Althingi Mr Einar K. Guðfinnsson hosted the visit. Vice President Radulović used the visit to meet chairpersons and members of the Budget Committee, the Economic Affairs and Trade Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Constitutional and Supervisory Committee.

The visit was organised with the aim of sharing view about the current political, social and economic situation in Iceland, state of affairs and future of the EU, the issue of survival of the Eurozone, security challenges in Europe and the rest of the world as well as complex situation in Montenegro and the region.

During the visit to Iceland, Vice President Radulović visited the biggest world group in aluminium production and processing Rio Tinto Alcan and spoke with executive director of the Company Ms Rannveig Rist.

The talks which Mr Radulović had were very interesting, specific in many ways, and they confirmed that Iceland - with its specific solutions in the fields of security, integration, resources valorisation, respect of public opinion – was one of the world’s leading countries when it comes to welfare and democratic achievements. It must be known that Island, with a relatively small population, geographic and climatic conditions and the overall natural resources, does not offer abundance and requires very active attitude of the population.

During the meeting with Speaker of the Althingi, Mr Guðfinnsson stressed that discontinuation of accession negotiations with the EU was not primarily determination of quotas in fishery, as interpreted by certain institutions and officials in the EU, but that was primarily a consequence of relations within the EU, and that Iceland in such relations may pursue its interests in much higher degree outside of the EU than strictly complying with its conditions and criteria. With regard to quotas in fishery, the leading Icelandic scientific institution in fishery carefully monitors the state of affairs in fishery funds which has been increased every year, hence the annual quotas given to private companies in Iceland are much lower than those which may jeopardise ecosystem. In all other fields, during the negotiations of Iceland with the EU, considerable results and effectiveness were shown, and the indicator is fast opening and closing of numerous chapters in relatively short period. Speaker Guðfinnsson presented an interesting overall package of economic recovery of Iceland. Thanks to that measures Iceland is using its comparative advantages, primarily in tourism, production of fish and production and processing of aluminium. The current unemployment is around 3.5-4% with the tendency to be even lower. Iceland achieved level of one of states with highest purchasing power in the world, whose GDP is rising constantly. Furthermore, Speaker Guðfinnsson stated the Icelandic position in the NATO Alliance. Namely, bearing in mind that since 1951 Iceland is a member of the NATO Alliance, the Speaker stressed that from 2005 the NATO base did not exist anymore in Iceland. Iceland has no its own military but only coastal guard. It possesses two ships of which one is with no soldiers with the latest radar equipment and which controls security of air and sea. The second ship is mainly used for humanitarian intervention as in the last case of rescuing immigrants in the waters of the Mediterranean. If necessary, a helicopter or plane is rented to oversee or intervene in case of accident situations on a relatively large area of Iceland, primarily when it comes to bad weather. Speaker Guðfinnsson showed great interest for state in all Balkan states, and particularly Montenegro. The talk included topics such as: situation with regard to the Ukrainian crisis as well as crisis caused by increased Islamic terrorism and consequences of extreme actions which may affect Balkans concerning multi-ethnic relations and overall security of the Alliance among certain military alliances.

A very interesting exchange of opinions happened during the meeting with Chairperson of the Budget Committee Ms Vigdís Hauksdóttir and particularly with Chairperson of the Economic Affairs and Trade Committee Mr Frosti Sigurjónsson, author of the new revolutionary concept “better monetary composition”. Mr Sigurjónsson stressed that there was no unique model of economic recovery and progress, but that comparative advantages should be used and that economic legislation of the EU must not always be a priority, but specifies of each country should be taken into account while creating optimal model. Mr Sigurjónsson informed Vice President Radulović on specifies of their model “better monetary composition”, which is currently considered within scientific and political community in Iceland and which is in the final phase, and it will be a part of the parliamentary agenda. The basic characteristics of “better monetary composition” envisage that the Central Bank is the only one which creates money while the Parliament decides on their allocation, taking into account that proposals or initiatives do not distort monetary and fiscal stability. According to this concept, commercial banks are authorised to manage invoices and payments among clients, as well as to invest. This would pre-empt any fraud or speculation or produce inflation. During the discussion, members presented details of so-called "Iceland's recipe" of existing the crisis, bankruptcy and privatisation of three banks, social policy, protection of depositors, the establishment of funds, participation funds for social and health care in the budget, participation of the capital budget and many of the measures taken to protect the population from the mortgage crisis. Furthermore, due to speculative relations, the previous Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, as well as directors of banks, were prosecuted and convicted. The Supreme Court ruled that the issuing of loans by banks in foreign currency was illegal. For the previously issued loans, the state protected its citizens by allowing the banks to pay lower taxes and thus made them lower the interest rates. However, on the other hand, the EFTA, of which Iceland is a member, issued a new request by which the banks are obligated to also issue loans in foreign currency. In order to protect the citizens, which is considered a priority in Iceland, the Government shielded itself from such directives by proposing that the loans be issued in foreign currency exclusively if the persons applying for loans were receiving their salaries in foreign currency.  The overall investment climate in Iceland is very interesting. In addition to developed road, energy and telecommunication infrastructure, there are numerous tax reliefs and grace periods from 10 to 15 years for new investors. The labour market and workforce are continuously being trained and further educated, so it happens that there are middle-aged or older university students. The knowledge centres, or the so-called “incubation centres” are formed, which provide expert assistance to potential investors, and the state intensively supports them financially. Mr Sigurjónsson supported the solutions offered by the Vice President Radulović regarding the promotion of economic, fiscal and monetary system in Montenegro, believing that the establishing of a Development Bank was necessary, that the linking to the euro currency was very risky and that the introduction of an alternative stable currency should be considered, to which all of the investments and all credits would be linked.

Vice President Radulović discussed the future of the EU with the Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee Mr Birgir Ármannsson. They considered numerous aspects of legislative and institutional infrastructure, numerous issues and challenges that the EU was facing, and Mr Ármannsson said that the issue of the future and the survival of the EU was “a million dollar question” and that nobody could tell that for certain. However, one thing is clear, and that is that radical reforms are needed within the EU.

During the discussion with members of the Constitutional and Supervisory Committee Mr Brynjar Níelsson and Ms Birgitta Jónsdóttir, numerous topics were covered, primarily the implementation of the European acquis, legislative procedure and implementation, model of prosecutorial and judicial organisation, as well as the overall election procedure. During the negotiations with the European Commission, all the laws were being adopted and implemented according to individual chapters, so that the chapters were being closed relatively quickly. It is important to point out that the Parliament had a key role in the process of adoption of the negotiation platform, and later in monitoring of implementation of the adopted laws. Mr Níelsson is the author of the model of legislative framework of establishing the independent judiciary in Iceland. Namely, based on that model, the Judicial Council consists of five members, i.e. two members from the Constitutional Court, one from the Trade Union of Courts, one from the Bar Association, and one from the Parliament. The judges are employed until they are 70 years old, and their employment can be terminated only if they break the law and are prosecuted for illegal action. As for the electoral system and free elections, no political parties ever have any objections, regardless of whether they win or lose, because the overall process is held regularly. While Vice President Radulović was sharing some information on the election situation in Montenegro and certain irregularities, his interlocutors were surprised, because such situations were unthinkable to them.  

Vice President Radulović informed the Iceland parliamentarians on the state of affairs in the region and in Montenegro, especially on the security situation, integration capacities, economic challenges and social problems. He said that Montenegro was facing numerous challenges, due to the nature of the regime, and negative and often illegal decisions. He expressed his concern due to certain statements of some leaders in the region on possible alliances outside the values of democracy and European integration. What caused many contradictions in the past several days were statements by heads of the EC and NATO on meeting of standards and progress of Montenegrin regime, which are outside the real reforms and achieved results. The statements could be interpreted as consequences of geopolitical influence and global crisis.

As stated before, Vice President Radulović used his visit to Iceland to meet with the executive director of the Aluminium Industry Rio Tinto Alcan, Ms Rannveig Rist. On this occasion, all endeavours of Vice President Radulović were confirmed, regarding the development of aluminium industry. Namely, the company Rio Tinto Alcan changed the structure of production, so today, instead of blocks they produce homogenised billets in the amount of cca 250,000 tons for over 30 renowned buyers, thus significantly promoting the profitability of the factory. As it is known by the public, Vice President Radulović has been advocating for years that the Aluminium Plant Podgorica should replace the production of ingots with the production of homogenised billets. By the way, there are three great aluminium companies in Iceland which produce around 800,000 tons of the primary aluminium and numerous small and medium-sized enterprises which further process a part of that aluminium. In that way, the aluminium industry represents one of the three key industrial branches of the Iceland –very successful- economy.