Iceland EU membership referendum 2026
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Iceland votes on restarting EU talks
Iceland's fishing industry directly contributed about 8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024.
Iceland is a founding member of NATO with a 75-year defence treaty with the US, but has no standing armed forces of its own.
Icelanders are voting on whether their country should reenter negotiations to join the European Union.
Iceland EU referendum voting closes
A Foreign Ministry memo estimated accession talks could start by the end of 2026 and take 18 to 24 months if Iceland votes to reopen talks.
The referendum was on whether Iceland should resume EU membership negotiations.
Iceland paused EU accession talks 13 years before this referendum.
Iceland Voters Reject Proposal to Reopen EU Accession Negotiations
Iceland is a founding member of NATO without any military forces of its own.
Iceland initially applied to join the European Union in 2009 following a financial crisis.
Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir pledged not to put the EU membership issue back on the political agenda during her term ending in 2028 if voters rejected resuming talks.
“It is clear that the international system we have lived in since the end of World War II is in turmoil,”
Iceland Holds Referendum on Resuming EU Membership Negotiations
Around 265,000 people were eligible to vote in the referendum out of Iceland's population of roughly 400,000.
Iceland gained independence from Denmark in 1944.
Iceland's last attempt to join the EU was shelved in 2015.
“For a country like ours with our small economy, it's very important to maintain our sovereignty and not to transfer more power than we would have to do to the EU,”
Iceland votes on whether to restart EU accession talks
Iceland is a founder member of Nato but has no military and relies on its allies for defence.
Iceland's interest rates are at 8% and inflation has climbed to 5.6%.
Any accession deal would have to be approved by a second referendum, by parliament, and the constitution would have to be amended, and the EU's 27 member states would also have to sign it off.
Iceland votes in EU membership referendum
Kristrún Frostadóttir's centre-left government had promised to hold a referendum by 2027 but brought it forward because of international tensions, including US President Donald Trump's threats against Greenland.
Iceland has a population of almost 400,000 people.
Based on the first 153,197 votes counted, 50.1% rejected the government's proposal and 49.9% said yes, with 435 votes separating the two sides, according to public broadcaster RUV.
Trump's Greenland fixation shapes Iceland's EU vote debate
Trump appeared to repeatedly mix up Greenland and Iceland during a special address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Iceland's coalition government must hold its next general election no later than August 2028.
Iceland is a member of the Schengen Area, which allows passport-free travel between it and other participating European countries.
“It is clear that the international system we have lived in since the end of World War II is in turmoil,”
Former Iceland prime minister dismisses EU referendum relevance
Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson's opposition party currently polls at around 15 percent.
The leader of Iceland’s Centre Party doesn’t think his country’s upcoming referendum binds Reykjavík to reopening discussions on joining the EU — even if voters back the “Yes” campaign.
Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson argued that the wording of the referendum question is so loose, its mandate could be satisfied by simply asking Brussels what it would offer Iceland if it joined the bloc, and then dropping the accession process.
Iceland holds knife-edge EU referendum
Iceland is part of the European Economic Area along with Norway and Liechtenstein.
Iceland is a founding member of NATO and has no military of its own.
Pétur Pálsson, boss of Visir fishing, fears joining the EU would cost Iceland jobs and drive factories abroad.