Choppy waters ahead as Iceland gets ready for its own EU referendum

As the UK marks the tenth anniversary of its fateful Brexit referendum next Tuesday, Iceland is fast approaching its moment of truth about the EU – albeit from the opposite direction. On 29 August, Icelanders will be asked whether or not to they want to come back to the table with Brussels for negotiations about joining the EU. Iceland originally applied in 2009 after the financial crash, but pulled out of talks in 2013 saying it couldn’t go any further without a referendum. Now, after more than a decade on hold, membership talks are back on the agenda. When I met Iceland’s youngest ever prime minister, Kristrún Frostadóttir, last year she said she expected a referendum in 2027 as a “ necessary step forward ”. But that was before Donald Trump’s threats to invade Iceland’s closest neighbour Greenland. Iceland’s government, no doubt driven by the sudden geopolitical focus on the Arctic, announced that the referendum would be brought forward. While fear of invasion by a US president who appears to have difficulties distinguishing between Iceland and Greenland, has convinced some Icelanders of the need to join the EU, the island is divided. And on both sides of the debate, Brexit has become a watchword. For the pro-EU camp, British Leave campaign misinformation and the sense that the UK hasn’t exactly flourished since its exit from the EU are evidence for why the Nordic country should do the opposite. …