A narrow referendum victory in favor of leaving the EU followed by years of tough negotiations with officials in Brussels, who are perplexed anyone would want to quit the bloc. That’s the situation the U.K. could face after Thursday — and it’s also what happened to Greenland.
In 1982, the largest island in the world voted to leave the Union, but it took until 1985 until negotiations were completed, following more than 100 meetings with EU officials. That talks were so tough for an island with a population of 56,000 doesn’t bode well for a swift divorce if the U.K. does opt for Brexit.
“The negotiations were a surprisingly unpleasant job,” Lars Vesterbirk, Greenland’s former representative to the EU who led the negotiations, told POLITICO. “The EU member states would not take us seriously because they were not willing to accept that you should or could leave.”
“At the time, you could become a member of the EU but you couldn’t leave,” Vesterbirk said.
Greenland and the U.K. are, of course, very different cases. Greenland, as part of Denmark, joined what was then the European Economic Community in 1973. After the introduction of home rule in 1979, the push to leave the EU gathered pace, mostly because of concerns about losing control over fishing rights — its main source of revenue. The people of Greenland had voted against EU membership in 1972, but had to join because of their ties to Denmark. When a second referendum was finally held a decade later, 52 percent voted to quit the bloc.
Denmark then submitted a proposal to the Council suggesting that the bloc’s rules “cease to apply” to Greenland.
It wasn’t a complete split, however. The Greenland treaty signaling the end of EU membership, signed in 1985, called for “close and lasting links between the [European Economic] Community and Greenland to be maintained and mutual interests, notably the developments needs of Greenland, to be taken into account.”
“The negotiations were rather subtle because Greenlanders were ready to remain in the Kingdom of Denmark but under the conditions that they would no longer be involved in the EU,” said Pierre Sellal, the current French ambassador to the EU who headed a special group on Greenland years after the negotiations.
“The Danes played a double game,” Sellal said, because to keep Greenland inside the bloc they had to make concessions to the EU.
Vesterbirk said the main opposition to leaving came from Germany, which was worried that Greenland “depended too much” on fisheries.
“They were very tough on us, [wanting] to keep us inside,” he said.
A fisheries deal was eventually struck, giving the island the right to govern its fishing sector and sell its catch to other countries. “The EU got almost the same amount of fishing rights they had before, and we had the same amount of money for our fish,” Vesterbirk said.
Today, the island is one of 25 overseas countries and territories, including the Turks and Caicos Islands and French Polynesia, that are not EU members but have a special partnership with the bloc.
Greenland receives funding from the EU’s general budget through the EU-Greenland Partnership. For 2014-2020, a total of €217.8 million was earmarked for cooperation with Greenland.
“British people should always remember that the EU was created for the benefit of member states, not for those outside,” Vesterbirk said. “You don’t get anything without giving something in return.”
The Brexit debate has reignited talk about the EU in Greenland, and there have been calls for the island to rejoin the Union.
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“We should at least look into the option of rejoining,” Michael Rosing, a member of parliament for the Democrats, a junior member of the ruling coalition with four of the 31 seats in parliament, told Reuters.
Rosing said EU membership would generate investment and help diversify an economy that is almost exclusively dependent on fishing.
While that seems a long way off, a British exit could be very close. But there was a warning to the Leave camp from Vesterbirk: “If it took Greenland more than two years to negotiate mainly on fisheries, in my eyes it will be an immense job for the U.K. and it will take many more years before they find a valid situation.”