A cold shower from the north as Iceland rejects EU membership talks

Iceland has voted against resuming talks on joining the European Union, 13 years after they were broken off. According to RUV, 52.8% of the more than 225,000 people who voted rejected the government’s proposal, while 47.2% backed it, with 12,600 votes separating them. The turnout was 82.5%, the highest in any Icelandic election since 2009.

The debate centred on Iceland's fishing industry, with concerns over maintaining control of its fishing waters. Iceland is already part of the EU's single market and Schengen border-free zone. If it had joined the EU, it would have entered the customs union and eventually the eurozone currency union.

Iceland began its application to join the EU in 2009, but talks were put on hold by a eurosceptic government in 2013. An EU diplomat described the vote's result as "a clear setback for Brussels".

Brief written by urgent.news from Euronews, MyJoyOnline Ghana, Daily Times, Semafor — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.