Around 270 thousand Icelandic voters participated in a referendum on the country's accession to the European Union, clearly rejecting the possibility of resuming accession negotiations with the 27 member states.
Advocates of this position argued that joining the European Union would directly threaten Iceland's national sovereignty, compromising the country's independence on matters considered essential.
One of the central points of the debate concerned control over Icelandic fishing waters, an economic sector fundamental to the nation and one that many voters want to keep exclusively under national jurisdiction.
The referendum result thus closes any prospect of Iceland approaching the European bloc in the near future, keeping the country outside the institutional structure of the European Union.
