Iceland rejects EU membership plan in referendum, after almost all votes were counted

Some 47.5% of voters supported the government's proposal while 52.5% said no, according to local broadcaster RUV's estimates. Final results are expected later on Sunday.

Iceland has rejected the government's proposal to hold accession talks with the European Union, public broadcaster RUV reported on Sunday, with only a small number of votes left to count.

Based on the first 188,500 votes counted of an eligible 270,000 from Saturday's referendum, 52.5% were against the government's proposal to restart negotiations, while 47.5% were in favor, RUV reported. No information was available on turnout.

"Yes" campaigners said that joining the bloc could ease high interest rates and offer more security in a world unsettled by the war in Ukraine and US President Donald Trump's threats over another Arctic island, Greenland.

"No" campaigners argued EU membership would threaten the island's sovereignty and fishing waters.

"Today is our encounter with history," Iceland's former President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, a campaigner against EU membership, said in a post on social media.

Old questions, new urgency

Iceland first applied to join the EU in 2009, amid a financial crisis that hit the country's small, exposed economy especially hard. Talks ended in 2013 when a Eurosceptic government shelved the process.

Renewed geopolitical turmoil has brought fresh urgency to an issue Icelanders have debated on and off for decades.

Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir, who has been backing 'yes', told Reuters last week that Saturday's vote boils down to a simple question: can Iceland still afford to stand apart in a world where old certainties are crumbling?

"The international order that underpinned our security and prosperity for decades is under serious pressure," she said. "In times like these, small nations need to think carefully about where they stand and who stands with them."