Icelandic people voted against paying compensation to the British and Dutch who suffered losses due to the Icesave bankruptcy. According to BBC News, the preliminary results of the referendum held in Iceland on April 9 showed that over 59% of population voted against paying. The British authorities’ representatives already called this decision disappointing and announced their intention to address the international court. This stance has been supported by the Dutch officials.
Icesave Bank had been actively attracting the funds of the UK and Netherlands citizens only to collapse in 2008 under the circumstances of the global financial crisis. In October 2008 it came to be controlled by the Irish government. The Dutch and British authorities paid 400 thousands of its citizens hit by Icesave nearly 3.8 bln. euros as a compensation and claimed the refund of this amount by the Iceland authorities.
It is the second time that Icelandic people refuse to cover the losses of the UK and the Netherlands. The first referendum on this issue was arranged in March 2010. That time 93% of population voted against. Afterwards the Icelandic Parliament arranged supplementary consultations with the representatives of the countries affected. It resulted in a more than 2-point decrease in the interest rates and boosted thus the term of paying from 8 to 30 years. Yet, president of Iceland Olafur Ragnar Grimsson imposed veto on the amended bill which brought about a new referendum.
Holding two referendums for such a short period of time is unprecedented for Iceland. Last time the referendum over the Icesave issue was arranged in 1944.
