The vote was for negotiations and not actually joining. Presumably there would have been another vote on joining the EU later.
The telling sign is that the capital Reykjavík voted in favor of negotiations, but rural areas voted against.
The telling sign is that the capital Reykjavík voted in favor of negotiations, but rural areas voted against.
The main downside and likely what steered the vote to no are conflicts with Iceland's fishing industry x EU regulations and becoming more vulnerable to foreign ownership and fishing rights.
Fishing represents 40% of Iceland's total exports according to Wikipedia.
My guess is most voters in Reykjavik have near zero exposure to fishing as an industry.
Iceland would also benefit from trade deals with non EU countries (currently it is excluded).
It also would have joined the Agricultural policy, which would have meant better access for its farm produce.
Strictly speaking, Iceland could do this unilaterally, anyway; Kosovo and Montenegro have done so, and Denmark and a bunch of African countries peg their currency to the euro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland :
>Iceland's economy depended heavily on fishing, which still provides ~20% of export earnings and employs 7% of the workforce.[77][152] [...] Iceland's economic dependence on fishing is diminishing, from an export share of 90% in the 1960s to 20% in 2020.[153][152]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Iceland :
>[The fishing industry] provides 40% of export income and employs 7.0% of the workforce; therefore, the state of the economy remains sensitive to world prices for fish products.[
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn45vdxyvvlo :
>its fishing and marine industries make up almost 40% of exports.
Note bbc says fishing _and_ _marine_ industries
only god knows what the truth actually is
The EU needs to get better at marketing it self.