Iceland’s prime minister, Kristrún Frostadóttir, has confirmed that the country will hold a referendum “in the coming months” on whether to reopen accession negotiations with the European Union, signalling a faster timetable than previously expected.
Speaking in Warsaw on Wednesday during a visit to Poland, Frostadóttir said the government had not yet set a date, but the vote would take place within a matter of months. She made the remarks at a joint press conference with Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk.
The referendum would not be a direct vote on EU membership itself, but on whether Iceland should resume negotiations that were suspended more than a decade ago. Iceland applied for EU membership in 2009 after the financial crisis and opened accession talks in 2010. At Iceland’s request, the negotiations were put on hold in late 2013. In 2015, the Icelandic government asked not to be regarded as an EU candidate country, a step noted by the Council of the EU.
Frostadóttir framed the planned referendum as a question of giving Iceland an option to deepen its links with Europe. Reuters quoted her as saying that reopening talks was about “opening an opportunity” and pursuing better integration with Europe.
Tusk, who has emphasised Poland’s support for EU enlargement during his premiership, said he would welcome Iceland as an EU member, according to accounts of the Warsaw appearance carried by multiple outlets.
The announcement follows reporting that Iceland was considering a summer ballot on resuming talks, with Politico suggesting August as a possible month. Frostadóttir’s Warsaw comments did not confirm a specific date but narrowed the timeframe to “the coming months”.
Iceland’s renewed focus on the EU question has been driven by a combination of domestic economics and a changed security environment in northern Europe. Reuters linked the shift to cost-of-living pressures and the continuing impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, alongside heightened attention to the Arctic and North Atlantic.
The same Reuters report also noted that repeated statements by US President Donald Trump about annexing Greenland have sharpened debate in Iceland, which sits strategically between North America and Europe and is a NATO member. Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, lies between Iceland and the United States, and the North Atlantic has become more central to European security planning since 2022.
Iceland is already closely integrated with the EU through the European Economic Area and related arrangements. It participates in the EU’s single market via the EEA and is part of the Schengen open-border travel area, while remaining outside the EU’s common fisheries policy and common agricultural policy — two areas that have historically been central to Icelandic political debate about membership.
Polling has suggested that public opinion has shifted, though it remains mixed. A poll reported in early 2025 put support for EU membership at 45 per cent, with 35 per cent opposed and 20 per cent undecided; other polling has indicated narrower margins at different points.
The domestic political context has also changed since the suspension of talks. Iceland’s current centre-left government, which came to power after a snap election in 2024, pledged to put the question of reopening negotiations to a public vote no later than 2027. The decision to hold a referendum in the coming months would bring that commitment forward.
If the electorate votes to reopen negotiations, Iceland would return to a technical and political process that can take years. Any eventual accession treaty would still require approval domestically and ratification by all EU member states, meaning that Wednesday’s announcement should be understood as the beginning of a potential re-engagement rather than a final decision on membership.
