Iceland's participation in the EU´s Civil Protection.The case of the COVID-19 pandemic : Did Iceland gain shelter or not?

• Main Author: Guðbjörg Einarsdóttir 1995-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Alþjóðasamskipti; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/42779

Iceland is not a member of the European Union (EU); however, it is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) and Schengen. Because of this, Iceland can participate in various institutions of the European Union, such as e.g., UCPM, which is the EU's civil protection mechanism. It also gets to participate in ECDC which is a decentralized agency whose aim is to strengthen Europe's defenses against infectious diseases. The aim of this study is to analyse whether Iceland receives benefits from participating in ECDC, UCPM and Schengen, all pillars that affect European Civil Protection in one way or another. Right now, Iceland, as is the whole world, is recovering from the consequences of the COVID-19 disaster. COVID-19 had a big impact on societies around the world. It is a recent disaster that will be used to see where Iceland stands within these pillars and whether it received shelter from them or not during the pandemic. The research is qualitative in the form of analyzing documents and implementation of interviews. The respondents are three persons who work in Icelandic institutions that work closely with UCPM, ECDC and Schengen during COVID-19. In order to explain the influence and participation of Iceland in those institutions during COVID-19, the topic is studied under the lens of the theory of shelter to shed light on the research topic.