Politico: Iceland seeks to accelerate vote on EU membership

Iceland may hold a referendum in August on resuming negotiations to join the European Union.

According to Politico, citing two informed sources, the country’s parliament could announce the date of the vote in the coming weeks.

The decision to hold a referendum became possible following a series of visits by EU representatives to Iceland and Icelandic politicians to Brussels. One source noted that if the outcome is positive, Iceland could join the EU faster than any other candidate country.

“The conversation on enlargement is shifting. It is increasingly about security, about belonging and about preserving our ability to act in a world of competing spheres of influence. This concerns all Europeans,” said EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, who met last month in Brussels with Iceland’s foreign minister.

Additionally, sources say that Iceland has drawn attention from U.S. President Donald Trump: he mentioned the country four times in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he spoke about Greenland, sparking increased interest in the small nation.

It is noted that Iceland applied for EU membership in 2009 following the financial crisis. However, negotiations were suspended at the country’s initiative in 2015 due to “a potential eurozone collapse.”

By Vugar Khalilov