Jacobs Open 2009 Final - Some Impressions

The Grand Final speeches just concluded - let me reminisce:

Bastian and Filip brought the fundamental insights on Iceland to the table and ran their case on Iceland only wanting to join the EU when in trouble (currently due to the banking crisis), considering that EU policy may otherwise impact negatively on Iceland's development, e.g. due to fisheries regulations.

Marco and Eva-Maria went somewhat ... innovative. They talked a lot about the geothermic potential of Iceland, how the EU could become Iceland's primary client in energy (rather than Russia) and the EU as more than an economic union. They also talked of the need to *spread democracy* in Iceland and the fact that Iceland could contribute to Green by some way of Carbon Capture and Storage: "Iceland has mcuh water, and we can put carbon into the water." - Don't tell the people at San Pellegrino ...

Derek and Ivan took their time to make fun of all the others (okay, Derek had had to take all the blame for all the Irish have ever done to/in the EU), established "rules" (you know, the Copenhagen ones) as fundamental (to any debate in Germany, really), talked about how not to rob Iceland of their primary economic activity (fisheries) and the double standard an admission of them to the EU would establish vis-a-vis Turkey's and Croatia's accession.
Ivan also explained why New Zealand never joined Australia ("cultural" reasons, related to sheep). But you know what New Zealanders call sheep - their Australian girlfriends.

Thomas and Maria made a cool case as to why Iceland really doesn't matter and it makes sense to just take them - with only 300k population, their ability to contribute to EU discourse, and to maintain an image of openness towards accession, even in times of economic crisis when we don't really want to let anyone in.

On a personal note: Derek and Ivan should have it, despite several problems with consistency. I can see a case for Thomas and Maria, but the summary should have supported their points better.