Sovereignty on the ballot in Iceland’s EU referendum

A ‘yes’ vote would restart accession talks, but Euroskeptics say membership would erode the island’s independence and drag it toward war After decades outside the bloc’s periphery, Iceland is about to hold a referendum on reopening membership talks with the EU. Is the Viking nation preparing to trade sovereignty for stability? Or is it climbing aboard a sinking ship?Icelanders go to the polls on Saturday, August 29 to answer a straightforward, yes or no question: “Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?” The referendum is not legally binding, but liberal Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir has pledged to honor its result.What stage are talks between Iceland and Brussels at?Iceland applied for EU membership in 2009, in the chaotic aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The country’s three biggest banks, Kaupthing, Landsbanki, and Glitnir, collapsed in the same week, and rather than force taxpayers to cover their balance sheets, Reykjavik washed its hands of the problem and let them fail.The Icelandic krona plummeted, inflation soared, and center-right Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigned. Amid the meltdown, the newly empowered Social Democrats argued t...