00:00Polls have opened in Iceland in a referendum on whether to resume their EU accession bid or shelve the prospect
00:07of joining the bloc for the foreseeable future.
00:10Polling stations are open from 9am to 10pm local time with voters deciding whether to return to membership negotiations or
00:20reject even exploring what a deal would look like.
00:24Of Iceland's roughly 400,000 population, around 265,000 are eligible to vote.
00:31A year's vote would not commit the Nordic nation to joining the EU, but it would reopen accession talks with
00:38the EU's executive branch, the European Commission, with any eventual membership deal put to another referendum.
00:44Iceland applied to join the EU in 2009, however, a new Eurosceptive government took office in 2013 and suspended EU
00:53accession talks.
00:54Iceland's left-leaning government, elected in 2024, originally vowed to hold the vote next year but brought it forward because
01:03of rising geopolitical tension over Russia's war in Ukraine and US President Donald Trump's claim to Greenland.
01:10Iceland's right!
