On 29 August, the citizens of Iceland took to the polls and voted against their government restarting negotiations on attaining E.U. membership, with 52.8 percent of voters opposed to the measure.
If approved, the Icelandic government would have publicly revisited the issue of joining the E.U. for the first time since 2013 and Icelanders would have voted again on whether to join the bloc at a later date.
However, the issue of E.U. membership continually faced pushback from such sectors as the Icelandic seafood industry, which raised concerns over the sovereignty of fishing resources and adherence to shifting and stringent E.U. rules.
Aiming to placate the sector’s concerns, Icelandic Minister of Foreign Affairs Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir issued assurances that fisheries would be protected in negotiations with the bloc.
“When it comes to fisheries, we are a superpower in Europe,” she told the Financial Times before the vote, adding that in any future negotiations, Iceland would refuse to allow the E.U. to decide catch limits and fishing quotas.
Similarly, European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans Costas Kadis said earlier this year that any deal with Iceland could include both fisheries and aquaculture exemptions to E.U. rules.
Nevertheless, the Icelandic fishing industry remained wary of E.U. membership.
“[Icelandic] success in the fishing industry was not a given but the result of decisions on the basis that Iceland has full control of its fishing resources and its exclusive fishing zone,” Fisheries Iceland (SFS), an Icelandic federation comprising fishing vessel owners and seafood processors, said in April.
Throughout this summer, SFS released statements about the possible dangers of membership.
Just before the vote on 20 August, the group warned that “E.U. membership could reduce Iceland's catch quotas, open up foreign ownership, and change the competitive position vis-à-vis subsidized fisheries within the E.U.”
According to Politico, many Icelanders were swayed by the concerns of the fishing industry, with several voters citing the opening of Icelandic waters to foreign companies as a primary reason for voting no.
Commenting on the vote, Iceland Prime Minister Kristrún Mjöll Frostadóttir said that the results showed Icelanders were happy about the country’s current relationship with the E.U.
"A big lesson for me and also for the government is that the people are happy with the European Economic Area agreement. I know that a large portion of the people who voted no in this referendum did so because they are happy with the current relationship with the E.U. This is the lesson that we take with us," she said.
Iceland’s decision to cut off any possible E.U. negotiations also hurts the chances of other North Atlantic governments exploring membership.
For example, Bárður á Steig Nielsen, the Faroe Islands minister of foreign relations and fisheries, said earlier this year that if Iceland joined the E.U. without losing control of its fishing industry, the Faroe Islands could have followed.
