Iceland

Iceland is a Nordic island nation of around 390,000 people (2024) in the North Atlantic, independent since 1944 and home to the Althing, one of the world's oldest parliaments. Though outside the Union, it is one of the EU's closest partners: a member of the European Economic Area since 1994, it takes part in the single market and has belonged to the Schengen Area since 2001.

Iceland applied for EU membership in 2009 and opened accession negotiations in 2010, but talks were halted in 2013 and the application set aside in 2015. In an advisory referendum in August 2026, Icelanders narrowly voted against resuming negotiations — 52.8% to 47.2% — in a debate dominated by fisheries and sovereignty. The government has pledged to respect the result, and the EEA remains the foundation of the relationship with the Union.

Iceland reflects a conviction the European Democrats hold firm: that Europe's door must always stay open — and that the choice to walk through it belongs, in a democracy, to the citizens themselves.