At a meeting of the Althingi parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Saturday it was announced that some of the Defense Agency’s projects will temporarily be moved to the Coast Guard. The Defense Agency will be shut down at the end of this year.
The Icelandic Coast Guard. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
According to Árni Thór Sigurdsson, who chairs the committee, it is planned that the Defense Agency’s projects will be divided between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police and the Coast Guard, Morgunbladid reports.
However, Sigurdsson pointed out that the Coast Guard will only be responsible for defense issues temporarily, as a new Ministry for Internal Affairs will negotiate on the future arrangement of defense issues with the Foreign Ministry when it begins operations at the beginning of next year.
According to an article on visir.is on US Embassy documents leaked by Wikileaks, former director of the Defense Agency Ellisif Tinna Vídisdóttir told the embassy that she believed the agency was shut down to “reward” the Left-Greens for supporting their coalition partner, the Social Democrats, in their application for EU membership.
Click here to read more about Wikileaks and the Defense Agency.
