Icelanders rejected a reopening of membership talks with the European Union, the country\u2019s national broadcaster said, in a referendum seen as a test of the bloc\u2019s geopolitical appeal.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Opponents of negotiations with the 27-member bloc accounted for 52.8% of the votes against 47.2% for supporters after a preliminary count of all ballots, according to data presented by the broadcaster known as RUV. The official results of the vote, which was held on Saturday, are due to be published on Sunday afternoon local time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Campaigning ahead of the vote focused concerns in the Atlantic nation of just under 400,000 about sovereignty and control over its fisheries and agriculture, while supporters highlighted the prospect of lower inflation and interest rates, as well as increased geopolitical and economic stability. The Nordic nation already has access to EU\u2019s single market through the European Economic Area agreement.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A negative outcome suggests Icelanders aren\u2019t too concerned over the shifting geopolitical landscape, even after US President Donald Trump\u2019s approaches toward its neighbor Greenland sparked a diplomatic crisis in the NATO defense bloc. Iceland is the only member of the military alliance without an army.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the EU, the \u201cno\u201d vote is a blow at a time when policy makers seek to make the accession process quicker amid doubts about the bloc\u2019s appeal. It\u2019s been 13 years since the EU last expanded, and more than three decades since an entry by a nation that became a net contributor upon accession. Iceland is among the richest nations globally on a per capita basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In comments last week, Prime Minister Kristr\u00fan Frostad\u00f3ttir said EU entry would help her nation boost trade, and lower costs for business and homeowners. About two-thirds of its exports went to the EU last year while the share of the US was at 9%, according to World Trade Organization data. The country has western Europe\u2019s highest interest rate, at 8%, as inflation has exceeded the 2.5%-target of the country\u2019s central bank since 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Iceland applied to join the bloc in 2009 in the aftermath of its financial crisis but froze the talks since 2013. The topic resurfaced with the change in government in late 2024. While the referendum is advisory, the government has said it will abide by the result.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Icelanders rejected a reopening of membership talks with the European Union, the country\u2019s national broadcaster said, in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1177567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,265136,299,5187,1699,319100,319098,319096,319095,151155,319094,319097,319099,319103,319093,319102,319101],"class_list":["post-1177566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-eu","tag-eu-expansion","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-european-union-enlargement","tag-iceland-economy","tag-iceland-eu-accession","tag-iceland-eu-membership-referendum","tag-iceland-eu-referendum","tag-iceland-european-union-membership","tag-iceland-fisheries-sovereignty","tag-iceland-inflation-and-interest-rates","tag-iceland-nato","tag-iceland-rejects-eu-talks","tag-iceland-trade-with-eu","tag-kristruacuten-frostadoacutettir"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1177566","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=1177566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1177566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1177567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1177566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1177566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1177566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}