Iceland’s government will make sweeping changes to its work permit system for foreigners from outside the European Economic Area. The changes are intended to attract foreign workers from outside the EEA, including entrepreneurs, and retain students from outside the EEA who have completed studies in Iceland. The proposed changes were presented by three government ministers […]
The University of Iceland is inaugurating a new program this fall: a minor in Polish Studies. RÚV reports that the university’s Polish language courses have been popular, particularly among elementary school teachers. Some 20,000 people of Polish origin live in Iceland, making it the largest single immigrant group in the country. The new program has […]
Residents of Iceland who live outside the capital area normally need to travel to Keflavík to go abroad, adding an often lengthy and costly leg to their travel itinerary. However, this summer will see a record number of international flights directly from Akureyri, North Iceland and even one international route from Egilsstaðir, East Iceland to […]
Iceland’s Parliament has voted against permitting MPs to put forth questions about Lindarhvoll, a company founded by the Finance Ministry in 2016 to handle assets acquired by the government after Iceland’s banking collapse, RÚV reports. Opposition MPs call for an internal report of the company from 2018 to be made public, which the Auditor General […]
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, entered into a fiery Twitter debate with Icelandic entrepreneur and philanthropist Haraldur Þorleifsson, who was laid off from the company last month. Musk implied that Haraldur, known as Halli, had not been fulfilling his job requirements at Twitter, while Halli asked whether Twitter would pay him the severance the […]
The Icelandic Confederation of Enterprise (SA) had the legal right to call a lockout of Efling Union workers in the ongoing wage negotiations between the two parties, Iceland’s Labour Court has ruled. SA was also legally allowed to let all of its member companies vote on the lockout, even those that do not have Efling […]
A new bill that would increase Icelandic police’s powers to monitor people who are not suspected of crimes is concerning to the Chairman of the Icelandic Bar Association. The Association submitted plenty of comments on the Justice Minister’s amendment bill to the Police Act, RÚV reports. Decisions on surveillance would rest solely in police hands […]
Better telecommunications security and speedier cloud services are two of the benefits of a new submarine cable connecting Iceland and Ireland, RÚV reports. The cable, named ÍRIS, began operating yesterday and is the third submarine cable installed and operated by state-owned Icelandic company Farice. The first two are FARICE-1 and DANICE, which connect Iceland to […]
The ferry that connects the 53 residents of Grímsey island to the mainland of Iceland will be out of commission for 6-8 weeks this spring for regular maintenance, RÚV reports. No backup transportation has yet been found to move either people or goods to and from the island during that period. One local city councillor […]
Academics and students at the University of Iceland have created a new mobile and computer app that uses flashcards to teach Icelandic vocabulary. The flashcard deck contains the 4,000 most frequently used words in Icelandic and provides translations into English, Polish, Chinese, and Ukrainian. “Flashcards [are] a well-known and well-established method used in diverse studies. […]
