The worst conclusion to draw from Iceland’s EU referendum result last month would be that the country, apparently now on Donald Trump’s imperial map along with Canada and Greenland, wanted to distance itself from Europe. Rather, the decision to refuse the reopening of EU accession talks shows that asking voters to choose between membership of the 27-nation bloc and staying outside the club is too binary. Some countries want to be inside the European tent without necessarily becoming members. The EU needs a new status for them.
There are existing models of close cooperation. Iceland and Norway, for example, participate in much of the single market through the European Economic Area (EEA). A range of other partial, gradual or associated membership options for candidate countries is being debated.
What I am proposing is different from any of them. It is not about setting up a stepping stone to accession, nor is it primarily about access to the single market. Instead, it is about letting like-minded countries combine with the EU when geopolitical and geo-economic necessities demand it, without them having to sign up to a predetermined constitutional outcome.
The main criterion for the novel status I call “integrated partnership” would be geopolitical rather than geographical. A country would not have to aspire to EU membership to qualify. It would not even have to be situated in Europe. Iceland, the UK and Norway are obvious potential candidates, but so are Canada, Japan and South Korea. » | Fabian Zuleeg | Monday, September 14, 2026
