Iceland votes against resuming EU accession talks

Thirteen years after negotiations to join the European Union ended, Iceland voted against resuming them.

State broadcaster RUV reported that 52.8% of 225,031 voters rejected the government's proposal, while 47.2% were in favor. The difference was about 12,600 votes.

Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir's centre-left government had promised to hold the referendum by 2027, but pushed it back due to the state of the world, including US President Donald Trump's threats against Greenland.

But the debate in this island country of nearly 400,000 people has focused less on security and more on the fishing industry.

Voter turnout was 82.5%, the highest in any Icelandic election since 2009, according to RUV. In total, approximately 270,000 people have the right to vote in the country.

The question put to the vote was: “Should Iceland resume negotiations to join the European Union?”

A Yes vote would not be a final decision on EU membership, but would be a step towards an accession agreement, which would then have to be approved in a second referendum.

Likewise, a "no" vote does not rule out the possibility of Iceland resuming negotiations in the future.

Iceland is already part of the EU single market and the Schengen area; membership in the EU would lead to the country's entry into a customs union and, ultimately, to the transition to the euro.

Iceland began the process of applying to join the EU in 2009 following the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent collapse of the country's banking system.

The bid was largely completed when a Eurosceptic government came to power in 2013 and suspended negotiations. Fishing rights were, and continue to be, a major unresolved issue.

The fishing and marine industry accounts for almost 40% of Iceland's exports, and many of those who voted "no" feared they would lose some control over their lucrative fishing grounds under the EU's common fisheries policy.

The referendum campaign has added fuel to the debate over Iceland's place in the world, Frostadottir said on Saturday.

“This is a great day, we have been waiting for this for years to finally be able to vote,” she said, adding that her government would continue its work regardless of the result.

While economic issues dominated the referendum campaign, security concerns were not spared.

Iceland is located in the high latitudes of the North Atlantic, next to the strategically important area between Greenland, Iceland and Great Britain (the so-called “GIUK Strait”, after the first letters of the names of these countries), where the West closely monitors Russian maritime activity.

Iceland is one of the founding countries of NATO, but it does not have its own army and relies on its NATO allies and the 1951 defense treaty with the United States for security. However, Trump's repeated claims of taking Greenland and the risk of a weakening alliance in Europe have deepened Iceland's concerns.