Gunnarsson questions Iceland’s plan after EU referendum
Monday 14th September 2026 on 10:45 in
Iceland
In an opinion article published by mbl.is, former ambassador Gunnar Gunnarsson questions the government’s plans after Icelanders rejected continuing membership negotiations with the European Union in a recent referendum.
The negotiations were halted in 2013 at the initiative of the Icelandic authorities. A majority voted against continuing them, which appeared to settle the issue. However, the application submitted to the EU following a parliamentary resolution from 2009 now appears set to remain in place rather than being withdrawn.
Gunnarsson asks why that is being done and whether the government intends to put the issue to another referendum. If so, he asks when that would happen and on what basis.
He argues that Icelanders are accustomed to parliamentary and presidential elections every four years, but not to being asked whether they want to continue negotiations with the world’s largest union of states. A yes vote would have meant permanent EU membership if the negotiations had proceeded successfully, he writes.
Gunnarsson questions whether voters were adequately prepared for what membership would involve. He says the debate during the summer before the referendum contained little information about the EU and appeared to assume that Icelanders’ positive experience of the European Economic Area would be enough for them to decide on EU membership.
He also says the debate largely avoided the issues that led to the negotiations being halted in 2013: agriculture and fisheries. In his view, little had changed substantively in those areas.
According to Gunnarsson, the authorities knew that they could not negotiate the substantive provisions of the EU treaties, only how and when Iceland would join. Temporary arrangements and special solutions may have been possible, he writes, but permanent exemptions, including on fisheries, were not available.
“What was the plan?” Gunnarsson asks. Did the Icelandic authorities intend to accept the entire package and put it to the public, or did they have something else in mind?