Iceland Focuses on Security Partnerships After Voters Reject Opening EU Membership Talks

Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir attends a press conference after Iceland rejected EU admission talks in a close-fought referendum, in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Aug. 30, 2026. Leonhard Foeger/ReutersIceland will focus on developing security partnerships after its citizens voted against opening talks to join the European Union (EU), the country’s foreign minister has said.Icelanders on Aug. 29 voted against reopening negotiations to join the EU; 52.8 percent of citizens voted against doing so, and 47.2 percent voted in favor.Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir told Reuters in an Aug. 31 interview, “[The EU] is still a ​very important partner for Iceland, and we need to strengthen our cooperation ​further.”“We will look at bilateral agreements, we already have such agreements with Finland and ‌Norway, ” she said.She also said that Canada and Japan are important partners.“We didn’t vote away the geopolitical situation; it’s still there, ​and we will have to find other ways to increase our security,” ​Gunnarsdottir said.Iceland’s parliament voted to take the question of EU membership to Iceland’s 400,000 citizens amid growing geopolitical instability and economic pressures.The Icelandic government had said before the vote that membership in the EU could bolster the Arctic island’s security.“I think that both our economic interests and our security interests are well-served by membership,” Finance Minister Dadi ​Mar Kristofferson told Reuters in June.“The core values of a small open economy are always going to be ⁠free trade and a rules-based order, because we do not have the capacity to defend our interests by force.”Iceland is a founding member of NATO but has no standing army and relies on NATO and a bilateral defense agreement with the United States for security.82.5 Percent VotedThe Nordic island already has access to the EU’s Single Market through its membership in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the Schengen open border travel zone. The Single Market allows for the free movement of goods and services without border controls, tariffs, or other restrictions.Gunnarsdottir said Iceland “will ​have to strengthen cooperation within the EEA.”“A ​very positive outcome of the referendum is that all Icelandic parties are now united behind the ​EEA agreement,” she said.Some 82.5 percent of eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots in the referendum.Had Icelanders voted yes, the EU admission talks would have begun with Brussels, and any agreement reached would have then gone back to the people in a second referendum on whether they should join the bloc on those terms.The Icelandic government has anticipated that, had the people voted to progress with talks, issues such as agriculture, fisheries, and the labor market would be the most difficult. Iceland has been hesitant about joining the EU over concerns that it would be forced to share its rich North Atlantic fishing grounds with boats from other EU countries.Iceland had initially applied to join the bloc in 2009, after its banking sector collapsed during the 2008 global banking crisis.However, Reykjavik abandoned membership talks in 2013 when a center-right government came to power. In 2015, Reykjavik asked the bloc to stop regarding Iceland as a candidate for EU membership.Iceland’s center-left government, which came to power after a snap election in 2024, had promised to hold a public vote on joining the bloc by 2027.Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir said in February that her government “will listen to whatever the Icelandic population wants to do.”Reuters contributed to this report.