Most Popular

Iceland held a referendum on August 29 on the issue of its accession to the European Union.

The Icelandic government had described the recent public vote as a “now or never” chance, using the accession issue as a shield against a trade war and contest for the Arctic.

But the referendum result published on August 30 showed that a majority of the citizens rejected the government’s bid to resume talks for the entry into the EU.

The state-run broadcasters and other mass media outlets reported that 52.8 percent of the voters in the referendum opposed the government’s bid.

It is said that there had been a controversy over the accession issue in Iceland, an island country in northern Europe and near the Atlantic Arctic region, for more than ten years.

An EU diplomat told Reuters that the result constituted an obvious defeat of the union.