With membership of the European Union favoured once again by the electorate, Iceland’s new government wants voters to decide by 2027 whether Reykjavik should resume the bid it abandoned ten years ago. According to the office of the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Marta Kos, Iceland, with a population of just under 400,000, had successfully negotiated 16 chapters of the membership application process, was actively engaged in discussions related to 11 other chapters, leaving just six that had yet to begin when the process came to a halt in March 2015. Â
Yesterday, Iceland’s Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir was received at the European Commission by Ursula von der Leyen, a prelude to talks with European Council President António Costa about relations between Iceland and the EU.
The election of the 36-year-old Social Democrat in December last year raised anew the question of Iceland’s EU accession. Frostadóttir’s governing coalition, comprising Social Democrats, the liberal Reform Party, plus the centrist People’s Party, determined to hold a referendum on the resumption of EU entry negotiations by 2027. The decision to do so is seen as a response to Donald Trump‘s election as the US president, an outcome said to have strengthened support among the Icelandic electorate for EU membership.
Located between Europe and the US, Iceland has been politically divided between those seeking full integration into the EU and those demanding national independence, who had been leaning more toward links with Washington. Surveys in early January showed that 58% of those polled favoured a new referendum. The latest poll released earlier this week indicates that 44% of the sample opted for EU membership, while 36% were opposed, leaving 20% undecided.
Clearly, Trump’s threats against Greenland have been closely followed on the island. Iceland, like Greenland, belonged to Denmark before declaring independence in 1944. Strategically located on the so-called GIUK Gap, a narrow passage in the North Atlantic used by Russian warships of the Northern Fleet making their way from the Norwegian Sea to the North Atlantic, meant that Iceland became a member of Nato from the outset even though it has no armed forces. Moreover, US troops were stationed on the island up to 2006.
Frostadóttir told the Financial Times in February that a new referendum on EU membership was merited “not out of fear” of the US, but because it would be right for the island’s economy and culture. Being a part of the eurozone is especially appealing to those disillusioned with the fickle Icelandic króna. This was a key motive for the 2009 application for membership which came on the heels of the 2008 financial crisis, resulting in the collapse of three Icelandic banks that left the country on the verge of bankruptcy.
