A new survey confirms Iceland’s longstanding opposition to EU membership
Most Icelanders do not want their country to join the European Union, according to a poll conducted by Gallup and published on Monday. According to the survey, 59.8% reject EU membership, while 40.2% want to see it happen. Membership of the union has been opposed in every opinion poll that has been published in Iceland since July 2009, or for more than eight years.
In the poll, which was conducted for Yes Iceland, an organization in favor of EU membership, it was further revealed that the majority of citizens both reject new membership negotiations with the EU and adopted the euro instead of the króna, the national currency. The krona has come under some criticism recently due to its rising value against other currencies.
Supporters of Iceland becoming part of the EU have often argued that it is only possible to apply for EU membership to see what Brussels has to offer without any commitment to actual membership of the Union. As a result, until recently, polls asking people about membership negotiations have often produced more positive results for their cause than polls asking people directly about membership.
Fresh membership negotiations with the EU are rejected by 55.5% of citizens, while 44.5% are in favor of it. When it comes to adopting the euro, which is not possible in the absence of EU membership, as Brussels has repeatedly confirmed over the years but which has sometimes been suggested in the Icelandic debate as a possibility without membership, 52.3% reject that step but 47.3% are in favor.
Iceland’s then centre-left government applied for EU membership in July 2009 following the economic crisis that hit the country the previous autumn. However, the accession negotiations were postponed after the 2013 parliamentary elections by a new centre-right government, which then announced to Brussels in 2015 that Iceland was no longer a candidate for EU membership.