WARSAW, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Iceland will hold a referendum “in the coming months” on restarting European Union accession talks, Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir said on Wednesday during a visit to Poland.
Reykjavik abandoned EU membership talks in 2013 after four years of negotiations, but a rise in the cost of living and the war in Ukraine have helped rekindle the island nation’s interest in joining the bloc, opinion polls have shown.
Repeated threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to annex Greenland, which is located between Iceland and the United States, have also made the question of EU membership more pressing for Iceland, which is home to almost 400,000 people.
“In the coming months we are going to have a referendum on opening up the negotiations, the accession negotiations for Iceland to possibly join the EU,” Frostadottir told a joint press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Iceland’s centre-left government, which came to power after a snap election in 2024, had promised to hold a referendum no later than next year on restarting talks with the EU.
Frostadottir said reopening the talks was about “opening an opportunity” for Iceland and pursuing better integration for the country in Europe.
Iceland is already part of the EU’s single market, the Schengen open-border travel zone, and the European Free Trade Association. It is also a NATO member.
(Reporting by Essi Lehto, Barbara Erling and Louise Rasmussen, editing by Gwladys Fouche and Gareth Jones)
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