Iceland Has Decided To Accelerate Its Accession To The EU

• 23.02.2026, 14:50

A referendum on the resumption of negotiations could be held as early as August.

Iceland could hold a referendum on reopening EU accession talks as early as August, Politico reported, citing two knowledgeable interlocutors. The country's parliament will announce the date of the vote in the coming weeks.

The ruling coalition had promised to hold the referendum by 2027, but accelerated the deadline due to geopolitical turmoil: the imposition of U.S. duties and Donald Trump's threats to annex Greenland. US ambassador candidate to Iceland Billy Long joked that the country would become the "52nd state", and Trump mentioned Iceland four times in a speech at the Davos forum discussing Greenland.

Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said the debate on EU enlargement was "increasingly about security and the ability to act in a world of competing spheres of influence". European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, meeting with Iceland's prime minister Kristun Frostadottir in Brussels, emphasized that the partnership "provides stability in an unstable world."

Iceland applied to join the EU in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis, when all three of the country's biggest banks collapsed. But in 2013, the government froze negotiations and in 2015 asked that its candidate status be removed.

Sociological polls show growing support for Iceland's EU accession. Negotiations could go quickly - Iceland is part of the European Economic Area and Schengen, and before the freeze managed to close 11 of 33 negotiating points.