A new survey by Capacent Gallup concludes that almost half the nation, 47 percent of respondents, want the Icelandic parliament, Althingi, to approve the new Icesave agreement with the British and Dutch governments.
Meanwhile, approximately 35 percent of respondents said they didn’t want Althingi to back the agreement and 17 percent were neither for nor against, ruv.is reports.
For comparison, more than 93 percent of voters rejected the previous Icesave agreement in the national referendum in March 2010.
Many more people who support the government want the new agreement to be approved, 78 percent, as opposed to nearly 30 percent of those who don’t support the government.
Regarding the content of the agreement, almost 60 percent of respondents said they were not familiar with it, while 17 percent claimed to know the content well.
Capacent Gallup approached nearly 1,200 people from all around the country with these questions in late December.
The Central Bank of Iceland has issued an evaluation of the new agreement saying there are strong arguments for resolving the Icesave dispute and that it is likely to significantly improve Iceland’s access to international financial markets, ruv.is reports.
Even though it is difficult to estimate the cost to the restoration of the Icelandic economy if Icesave is stalled, further delays are likely to be costly, especially if the EFTA Court would rule in Iceland’s disfavor, the Central Bank concluded.
The Althingi’s Budget Committee began its review of the new Icesave agreement yesterday and called Central Bank governor Már Gudmundsson in for a meeting.
Click here to read more about Icesave.
