Jilted by Iceland - but Wider Europe is forming through new cooperation structures around the EU

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

67% : New security projects are available to non-members, such as the UK-EU partnership, joint procurement loans under Secure Action for Europe (SAFE) and Iceland's participation in EU secure connectivity.
62% : The EU has a special attraction for middle powers looking for trustworthy and reliable partners.
62% : That gain in geopolitical weight may become a lot more valuable as the EU's security weight grows and if NATO's wanes.
58% : But the vote also underlines the changing architecture of European integration.
58% : But now, more significant 'variable geometry' clubs are emerging that function around an EU institutional core.
58% : The 56,000 Greenlanders might also reconsider EU membership, having left in 1985, as the map of the North Atlantic again attracts the attention of the Oval Office.
57% : EU membership remains the deepest form of integration, but other countries can now participate in substantive initiatives on defence, economic security, space and payments systems, blurring the line.
57% : In a transactional world of rule-breaking superpowers, the EU's community of law is an island of stable regional governance.
56% : The EU is developing stronger defence structures, particularly on joint procurement and arms production.
56% : Greater autonomy from the US requires deeper European integration but not necessarily endless enlargement.
56% : Could the EU extend its institutions to provide legitimacy and legal enforcement also to initiatives with non-members?
56% : For high-income countries with access already to most EU markets and policies, the major benefit of membership is to move from being a decision-taker to having a voice and vote.
54% : Previously, projects that started among EU members expanded to cover non-members, such as the Schengen travel area that now includes Norway and Iceland.
54% : Some build on existing institutional and legal arrangements, such as the European Economic Area (EEA) covering Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, the EU-Türkiye customs union, and the United Kingdom and Swiss bespoke agreements.
53% : Instead, there are many alternatives for formal and informal ties across Europe, many anchored in special relationships with the EU.
52% : That would be a stretch, but the EFTA (European Free Trade Agreement) court, which adjudicates between the EU and EEA members, provides an interesting hybrid.
51% : Instead of a 'neighbourhood policy' designed by the EU for less-developed countries, what could emerge is a plurilateral 'wider Europe beyond the EU'.
46% : The 29 August vote in Iceland against restarting negotiations on European Union membership is not the end of the story because the option remains to a future government to try again.
44% : That would open new possibilities for the UK, and even for Türkiye after a change of government, to deepen their relationships with the EU. Canada, though geographically distant, wants to deepen ties to compensate for the deteriorating US relationship, not only through a bilateral deal on trade, digital transition and climate change, but by joining EU programmes: Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and SAFE for defence, and Horizon Europe on research.

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