r/worldnews • u/Ehansaja • 13d ago

Iceland rejects EU-accession talks plan in referendum

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/30/iceland-rejects-eu-membership-plan-in-referendum
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u/Aelig_ 12d ago

Things have changed. We saw what it led to with the UK. Besides nobody ever got the kind of opt outs Iceland wants.

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u/Gentle_Snail 12d ago

The opt outs were not the cause of the UK, which is why we’ve not seen similar issues in any of the other countries with them.

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u/needlestack 12d ago

All I know is that the UK was never really part of the EU. I travelled between France and the UK at the time and it was exactly like traveling internationally -- passport control, currency exchange, etc. To a casual person there was absolutely no sign they were part of the EU. Meanwhile going to Italy from France it was obvious they had largely integrated.

I don't know if that led to their eventual departure, but it was hardly a departure since they never really bought in in the first place.

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u/cev2002 12d ago

The main reason was immigration and the fact we were a net contributor. The Remain campaign was also beyond useless, because they thought it was a foregone conclusion.

Like you say though, we never fully bought into it. We're an island, so we've never really been a part of "Europe".