Discussion: should Iceland pay?
Last Tuesday, Iceland’s Olafur Ragnar Grimsson vetoed a bill that would have required his nation to repay the Netherlands the 1.8 billion euros in damages it incurred after IceSave went bankrupt.
The initial reaction in the Netherlands was harsh. The Dutch minister of finance, Wouter Bos, said he was “very disappointed.” Dutch European parliamentarian Hans van Baalen even threatened to block the nation’s entry into the European Union.
Since then, voices have risen urging we should not be too hard on the smallest Nordic country. Eva Joly, a Dutch colleague of Van Baalen, has said that Iceland risks becoming severely impoverished if the Dutch stick with their demands of full repayment of damages at 5.5 percent interest. She also called it unfair that the Icelandic population at large had to pay for the mistakes of a handful of banks.
What do you think? Is it unfair to expect the Icelandic population to repay a debt incurred by others? Or would a waiver of the debt provide an unwelcome precedent?
Discussion: should Iceland pay?
Last Tuesday, Iceland’s Olafur Ragnar Grimsson vetoed a bill that would have required his nation to repay the Netherlands the 1.8 billion euros in[R1] damages it incurred after IceSave went bankrupt.
The initial reaction in the Netherlands was harsh. The Dutch minister of finance, Wouter Bos, said he was “very disappointed.” Dutch European parliamentarian Hans van Baalen even threatened to block the nation’s entry into the European Union.
Since then, voices have risen urging we should not be too hard on the smallest Nordic country. Eva Joly, a Dutch colleague of Van Baalen, has said that Iceland risks becoming severely impoverished if the Dutch stick with their demands of full repayment of damages at 5.5 percent interest. She also called it unfair that the Icelandic population at large had to pay for the mistakes of a handful of banks.
What do you think? Is it unfair to expect the Icelandic population to repay a debt incurred by others? Or would a waiver of the debt provide an unwelcome precedent?
Monday 11 January 2010, 21:33
a country should not be responsible for non government debts.the reason people banked with icelands banks were because they offered higher interest rates.the reason they offered higher rates was because they were a riskier investment.as time has proved they were indeed risky. iceland should not be held responsible for the greed of other nations people. they could perhaps tighten legislation to prevent this happening again.invest your money in your own countries banks if you want it to be secure you fools
Friday 15 January 2010, 10:02
The Icelandic Bank responsible for Icesave was a private bank, operating independently in Great Brittain, within British jurisdiction, and under the watchful eye of the British Financial British Financial Services Authority , a department supervised by the British Treasury. The bank collapsed after the British government unreasonably used a section of its anti-terrorism laws to freeze assets of the Icelandic bank. The terrorist legislation has no basis in European Law. The derective on the Deposit Insurance scheme was fully complied with by Iceland since 1994, and is written into Icelandic Law, and at no time was there a complaint filed against Iceland, either by the European Economic Area (EEA) or the European Union (EU). Taxpayers cannot be expected to write open-ended insurance on the foreign activities of their banks.”
Saturday 23 January 2010, 12:26
@ Brendan. Some people have actually phoned the Dutch bank (DNB) whether is was wise to put their money with Icesave before putting it there. DNB spokespersons said it was ok. I am talking about September 2008. In August 2008, the national consumers’ union (Consumentenbond) recommended a few banks, one of them being Icesave.
No EU membership for Iceland if they don’t pay. This is a wealthy country!!!!
Thursday 4 February 2010, 17:10
Why should a whole country pay for something that they barely even knew existed until this whole mess. Iceland isn’t wealthy. It barely has any money which is why a lot of Icelanders are moving to Norway. Too many people are out of work and everyone is struggling and they’re expected to pay IceSave… That’s absurd. How would anyone like if all the sudden they had to pay a lot of money for something that they had nothing to do with.
Saturday 6 February 2010, 1:48
Yes, I do think that Iceland should pay, since the country accepted to guarantee the bank deposits. The fact that the government didn’t pay proper attention when the banks were taking too much risks doesn’t cancel the guarantee given. However, I do think that given the size of the country, the terms should be reasonable. A bit of compassion with the citizens of Iceland would be nice. It makes no sense to cripple Iceland.
Thursday 8 April 2010, 2:05
You don’t seem to realize that most of Iceland is already ‘crippled’. Everything has gone up, people are already paying so much money because of Iceland’s current situation and I think that if the citizens were to pay, most would resort to fleeing the country because they can’t afford it. How can a country with no money pay something they never agreed to in the first place.
To put newborns in debt is just ridiculous.
Why don’t they just make the guys that put Iceland into this mess pay… Nobody seems to want them to pay for this. It’s their fault. And it’s not like they don’t have any money…