{"id":1135808,"date":"2026-08-07T12:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1135808\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T12:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:22:15","slug":"iceland-warns-brussels-not-to-meddle-in-eu-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1135808\/","title":{"rendered":"Iceland Warns Brussels not to Meddle in EU Referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iceland\u2019s government has warned Brussels it must not interfere in the country\u2019s forthcoming referendum on whether the country should try to join the European Union.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The country\u2019s current left-wing government \u2014 which is pushing for the island to join the EU \u2014 has nevertheless insisted that any attempts by the bloc to influence the vote would be unwelcome.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Icelandic press, Icelandic Prime Minister Kristr\u00fan Mj\u00f6ll Frostad\u00f3ttir said that any meddling attempts from abroad \u201cwould not be tolerated\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brussels media outlet Euractiv later confirmed that the warning was conveyed in private to senior Eurocrats.<\/p>\n

EU officials have since insisted that they always planned to stay out of the referendum, describing the question of whether or not Iceland should try to join the European Union as being up to \u201cthe Icelandic people alone to decide\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission never intervenes in national elections or in referenda in any way,\u201d a representative from the European Commission said.<\/p>\n

Such a claim that Brussels \u201cnever\u201d intervenes in foreign votes is historically questionable, with the EU showing a clear and open interest in elections in the bloc\u2019s east over the past year.<\/p>\n

European leaders leaned heavily on voters in both Moldova and Hungary over the last twelve month, promising both countries generous financial support should they vote in EU-friendly leaders.<\/p>\n

The bloc\u2019s decision to stay out of the post-vote annulment of Romania\u2019s December 2024 presidential election also raised eyebrows.<\/p>\n

While critics argued that the decision by the country\u2019s court to throw out the entire election was not supported by sufficient evidence, Brussels opted to support the Romanian government\u2019s decision to re-run the vote.<\/p>\n

Much of Brussels\u2019 involvement in foreign elections has centred around the bloc\u2019s current conflict with Russia, with Eurocrats working to reduce Moscow\u2019s influence in its border states amid Vladimir Putin\u2019s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iceland\u2019s government has warned Brussels it must not interfere in the country\u2019s forthcoming referendum on whether the country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1135809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,7059,9891],"class_list":["post-1135808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-iceland","tag-referendum"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117054206692368609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1135808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1135809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1135808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1135808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1135808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}