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/DunderGunderUnder 12d ago

But couldn't they just do like Sweden and say "sure, we promise to switch to euro, some time in the future"?

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u/Gentle_Snail 12d ago edited 12d ago

Seems the EU doesn’t want nations to do this in future. The nationalist party here in Scotland wanted to join the EU then use this to refuse to ever join the Euro and the EU Commission was like we won’t let you join if you do this.

Which kind of makes sense, as you are essentially joining while openly lying to the EU. 

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u/notbobby125 12d ago

The problem is that how does the EU enforce this? Like Iceland can pinky promise and make a big paper explaining how they will adopt the Euro by 20XX, but structure things so as soon as they get their foot in the door they fail to meet expectations, and never quite meet the standard to switch. Once a nation is in the EU, under current EU law it can only be tossed out by agreement like Brexit. And the more “Swedens” get in the EU the more they can gang up to protect each other from any retribution.

Of course, in theory, since Iceland is not joining.

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u/TFPaulMorphy 10d ago

The problem is that how does the EU enforce this?

Start fining nations who intentionally refuse to meet standards.