Iceland may fast-track vote on joining EU: report

DW News · Feb 23, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Iceland's government is considering holding a referendum on EU relations as early as August, according to two sources cited by news publication Politico. Reykjavik had pledged to hold the vote on restarting talks on joining the bloc by 2027. But growing geopolitical uncertainty could lead to those plans being brought forward. US President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on Iceland and his stated desire to annex Greenland have created jitters in the country of 400,000 people. In its report, Politico cited two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying the Icelandic Parliament was expected to announce the date of the referendum within weeks. "I make no secret of the fact that I would like to see this process accelerated," Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir told the Reuters news agency last week. "I hope that this will happen sooner rather than later," she said, given the "completely different geopolitical environment." What happened to Iceland's previous EU bid? Iceland already applied for EU membership in 2009 after being badly hit by the 2008 financial crisis. Formal membership negotiations began in 2010. But in 2013, a newly elected center-right government suspended talks and in 2015 Reykjavik asked to withdraw its application. Polls have shown that while the Icelandic public broadly supports the idea of a referendum on the issue, they have been less sure about the prospect of actually becoming an EU member. There are signs that might be shifting, though. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Trump's threat to take over Greenland, and US-EU trade tensions have led to renewed interest in joining the EU. Iceland's Social Democratic Alliance, which won the 2024 election, campaigned on a promise to hold a referendum by 2027, although one of its two coalition partners opposes EU accession. EU officials have also held a number of recent meetings with Icelandic politicians. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Iceland last year, and hosted Iceland's Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir in the Belgian capital last month. Foreign Minister Katrin Gunnarsdottir also met with EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos in Brussels last month. "The conversation on enlargement is shifting," Kos told Politico. "It is increasingly about security, about belonging and about preserving our ability to act in a world of competing spheres of influence. This concerns all Europeans." Iceland is already heavily integrated into the EU. It is part of the European Economic Area, giving it access to the internal EU market, and the Schengen free travel area. It is also a founding member of NATO, although it doesn't have an army of its own and depends on the US for security. Were Iceland to restart membership talks, negotiations could move quickly, possibly taking just a year, according to an EU official cited by Politico. However, it would likely face tough negotiations on issues such as fishing quotas and whaling.Croatians share mixed feelings on euroTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher