Iceland has picked its chief negotiator to begin talks on joining the 27-member European Union, the foreign ministry said. Iceland reversed its decades-long policy of independence from the EU in July, when it handed in its application to the EU in the wake of the global financial crisis that a year ago saw its three main banks collapse. The application is being assessed by the executive European Commission. Stefan Haukur Johannesson, the new negotiator, has served in Brussels since 2005. Prior to that he was Iceland’s permanent representative in Geneva to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA,) the United Nations.