BRUSSELS—Iceland opened membership talks with the European Union on Tuesday, saying it wants to sit "at the family table" of Europe but stressed its fishing sector — the lifeblood of the Icelandic economy — must be off limits to the EU.
Ossur Skarphedinson, Iceland's foreign minister, proposed Iceland's fishing waters be named a "specific management area," letting only Iceland manage species there, unhindered by fishermen from other EU nations who have allegedly depleted fish stocks everywhere.
Saying the EU's common fisheries policy has failed to prevent "endemic overfishing" elsewhere, he said Iceland's fishing sector "must not be undermined" if and it joins the EU.
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