Iceland prepares for vote on EU talks

The political stakes are high for Iceland as the country prepares for a referendum on Saturday that could push it closer to membership in the European Union.

Up for discussion is whether the country's center-left government should resume talks on joining the bloc, rather than make an outright decision on membership, but with Iceland having had a fluctuating relationship with the 27-member EU in recent years, it is being presented to voters as a "now or never" choice.

Iceland is the second-largest island in Europe, behind Great Britain, but has a population of less than half a million people, with large areas of its landmass being tundra. It is currently a member of the European Economic Area, giving it access to the European single market but not a say on Pan-European matters. Given its geographic isolation from the continent, fishing rights in its territorial waters are a particularly contentious issue.

"It is quite clear that this vote is about getting a mandate to negotiate," Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir, of the Social Democratic Alliance, told the country's parliament earlier this year. "I do not think we should be getting hung up on rhetoric here. We are going to conclude a good agreement. The people will have the first say in this, and they will have the last say in this."

Iceland first applied for EU membership in 2009, in the aftermath of a banking crisis, but accession talks stopped in 2013 following the election of a government less friendly to Brussels, although the application was never formally withdrawn.

'A great time'

The current government is more open to membership, but there have been suggestions that with the economic situation having improved, there may be less public enthusiasm for joining.

However, Frostadottir has emphasized the global geopolitical environment as a reason why it would be "a great time for Iceland to join".

One possible reason is United States President Donald Trump having mistaken Iceland for Greenland in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, when he set out the US territorial ambitions for the mineral-rich Danish-controlled territory.

Iceland's Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir made a thinly-veiled reference to this earlier this year when she wrote "the international system we have lived with since the end of the Second World War is shaking", and that a closer relationship with the EU was "a key variable" for national security.

But it seems that everyday issues, such as the fishing industry, rather than more global themes, are a priority for voters, and with less than a week to go until the vote, the outcome is far from clear.

The Euronews website reports that in July, a study by polling company Maskina had 53 percent of voters supporting reopening talks, with 47 percent opposed. Another poll this month by Gallup showed an even tighter split, with both sides claiming 46 percent support and 8 percent undecided.