It's already in the Schengen.

Iceland already heavily integrated into the EU, the only outliers are currency, foreign policy, security, political institutions, customs and some trading sectors like fishing.

Currency (since the exchange rate to the Euro is what sets pricing in Iceland) and security are the reasons many want to get closer.

Iceland already is Schengen

The Norwegian PM said to Britain back then “don’t repeat our mistake. We need to, in practice, follow all the EU’s rules and don’t get any say in it”

Iceland is already a member of Schengen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area

It's a bit different with fishery as the backbone of your economy vs. oil, minerals and banking.

Norway and Switzerland are in the EU in all but final signatures ar this point: they are fully ibtegrated into EU economy, apply EU's laws and regulations and even pay into EU funds.

Yes, these are bad examples. Norway - rich beyond belief due to its energy resources. Switzerland - rich beyond belief because of its developed banking sector. Not sure how Iceland stacks up here. Fishing will be an issue for them, no doubt here.

Market integration is a good thing.

Iceland is already part of Schengen, EFTA, and NATO. They're in the best position there is, having negotiated the best the EU has to offer but not the bad parts, such as the Euro, Pfizer deals, the migration and asylum pact, or age verification. I can't imagine them joining the EU being anything but a massive downgrade for them.

> Norway and Switzerland have a fantastic overall quality of life

Well, one sits on vast amounts of oil and the other has been doing some dodgy financial stuff for very long time.

> Iceland is probably better off joining the Schengen but not EU.

It irritates me so much how some countries get to pick and choose. It's just ridiculous how some countries refuse to join Eurozone. The UK used to be in the EU, but wasn't part of Schengen. Now it's not part of anything, but is still in Horizon Europe?

Norway gets all the money it wanted from offshore gas, and Switzerland from being the bank of Europe when world wars happened (not mentioning gold nor laundering). When money is handed down to you like this by geography or history, the benefit of joining the eu and paying more for others is probably not given for the population.

> I feel the UK were wrong to leave [..]

Whether it was the correct decision or not, it was done via a democratic vote. Now the leaders of the UK look to entangle the UK into the EU structure that is evidently against their mandate.

In practice, these countries implement already a lot of EU law. It isn't that difficult for say a Switzerland to join the EU and they have good reasons to, as access to programs like Horizon is a huge benefit. The economies of these countries are quite interwoven with the second largest economy of the world. The EU market comes with rules but is is a very big win for neighboring countries. In fact, Switzerland backtracking on previous accession tracks and thus not qualifying anymore for Horizon etc is causing some serious regrets, so I won't be surprised if Switzerland bites the bullet somewhere in the future.

Secondly, the world got a lot more unstable since the US is pushing for a lawless might-makes-right world and taking an increasingly predatory posture there. From that perspective, the EU is becoming even more relevant. Poignant example is Canada taking more and more steps to integrate their economy with the EU, as well as to become part of its security architecture.

Leaving didn’t help the UK much regarding migration, did it?

They export good music too (Bjork and Sigur Ros)!

> The arguments that some put forward against the eu are as educated as the people declaring fiat money a scam back in the Bitcoin hype phase. > > While there are reasons not to join, most commenters against it have no clue what they are talking about.

Indeed! As I just learned in this comment, the EU is about to collapse and Iceland would be stupid to board an already sinking.

Makes me wonder where these commenters get their information about Europe/EU from, and whether these comments are a projection of either ignorant or ideologically motivated animosity towards the EU.

Joining the euro is a hard requirement for new countries entering the union.

The only negotiable is the length of the transition period.

New joiners are required to eventually adopt. Only members that were so before the Euro are exempt.

Have you seen how bad is the Icelandic crown, their prices and their borrowing rates? Adopting the euro is one of the main arguments in favor of joining the EU.

The Euro is actually one of the reasons they want to join; even their prime minister stated it explicitly. It would be a more stable currency than their own.

Sounds like the way a certain referendum to do the opposite should have been run.

Because if the people don't want to join in the first place, why hold negotiations to begin with?

Because you’re in a different position to negotiate if you know you have the support of the population? That’s my intuition at least