Iceland just friend-zoned the EU

Voters chose market access without submission, showing that Brussels is not the only path between dependence and isolation

Well, what do you know! It turns out that you really can crawl into bed with Brussels on your own terms, and be friends with benefits, all without the need to officially shack up. 
The people of Iceland have just done something that would usually be considered political blasphemy here in Europe. They’ve decided that their country would like to remain in charge of itself, voting 53% to 47% in a referendum not to pursue getting officially hitched to the EU.

It’s a rarity these days to see a show of democracy that’s something other than just a midwife delivering whatever Brussels wants. It even had to be warned by elected officials not to meddle. Icelanders considered just the idea of continuing EU accession talks, which was the subject of this referendum – not even “do you want EU membership or not,” but only “should even we keep playing footsie with Brussels over it” – and decided that they didn’t need a ring on their finger in order to keep their toothbrush in Brussels’ bathroom.

Iceland already has access to the European common market through the European Economic Area (EEA). What else could it possibly gain from greater submission to Brussels that would actually make it worth surrendering any more of its autonomy?

Much has since been made of comparisons to the UK and Brexit, arguing that Iceland’s inclusion in the EU’s common market isn’t true independence and that if it were, then the UK wouldn’t have needed to withdraw from the EU entirely. But they’re comparing a bitter post-divorce Brexit deal with a country being wooed. Do you treat your ex-wife like your new girlfriend?

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Iceland gets market access without becoming part of the EU’s full political and institutional machinery, with all the constraints and impositions that alone brings. EU law has primacy over its member states’ conflicting national law, which is a fundamentally different legal relationship from Iceland’s as a non-member. And then there’s the matter of Icelanders wanting to retain control over their country’s primary assets – fisheries and agriculture. It knows exactly what Brussels is eyeing up and down.

So basically, they’re saying, “Why would we voluntarily make ourselves less capable of deciding what happens here?” It probably doesn’t much help that the EU has developed a real talent for taking relatively straightforward questions and feeding them into a regulatory meat grinder to the point where nobody remembers what the original issue was.

Take packaging, as a recent example. Everyone voted on this nonsense requiring reusable containers for take-out in the same way that you have to show up to the supermarket with a reusable bag, or else risk having your groceries tumble out of your arms and into the crosswalk en route while returning home. (And forget about using a car, Earth-killer.) I guess nobody thought through what would happen once the measures actually took effect. Because the EU Commission, which drafted the nonsense, recently went like, “Wooo, boy! Exactly how high were we when we came up with this one?!” Then it urged member states not to enforce the rules or related penalties. That’s not exactly a compelling way to entice anyone to voluntarily hand over even more authority to these same jokers.

And Brussels understands that Iceland remains useful to the EU regardless. “The European Commission takes note of the outcome of Iceland’s referendum. The Commission respects the choice of the Icelandic people. Iceland remains a close partner of the European Union,” it said. In other words, “You may have declined our marriage proposal, but it’s not the end of our relationship.”

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That’s something typically said when the declining party has something that you really want, to the point that you’re still willing to concede the dream of total control for the consolation prize of continued access.

The lesson here is that you really CAN cooperate with the EU without becoming fully absorbed by it, and you can trade with it without transferring every conceivable decision to it, and you can have common interests without having a common political identity that’s decided by bureaucrats, after which countries and citizens are squeezed into it like mental patients into a straitjacket.

Iceland has just proven that there’s a third option that exists between isolation and membership. The congratulations came from global sources as diverse as the populist right and left, and even globalist establishment crony and former US national security advisor John Bolton, who framed it as a rejection of Trump’s invasion-related fear-mongering that risked making Iceland feel insecure enough to run straight into the EU’s arms.

Folks from all sides seem to have actually accepted Icelanders saying no – even the EU, despite sounding as thrilled about it as a rejected guy getting up off his dusty knee, post-proposal. Usually, when people vote the ‘wrong’ way, we’re treated to lectures about misinformation, populism, Russian influence, democratic backsliding, or the possibility that the electorate has simply become too stupid to appreciate the wonderful plan being implemented on its behalf. But Iceland appears to have escaped this compulsory remedial democracy class. She’s just that hot, apparently.

Canada, in particular, should take note before getting too cozy with Brussels, because the EU is so thirsty for its natural resources these days, drooling over its ample natural assets while the mainstream Western press fantasizes en masse about a European-Canadian wedding.

Iceland is now the indisputable gold standard in geopolitical thirst trapping.

Sounds like a good time for the EU to ponder why its regulatory and bureaucratic smooth moves aren’t proving enough to seal the deal when the average citizen actually gets a say.