Iceland appears to have rejected EU accession talks in referendum, reports say

No camp looks to have prevailed, holding 52.5% of votes with only a few left to be counted, says public broadcaster

Iceland appears to have rejected the government’s proposal to hold accession talks with the European Union, the public broadcaster RUV has reported, with only a small number of votes left to count.

The no camp had 52.5% of votes and the yes camp 47.5%, with only a few ballots left to be counted in one of Iceland’s six voting districts, which was already leaning toward no, online ballot counting on RUV showed on Sunday.

“The nation rejects accession negotiations with the EU,” RUV wrote.

Barring a major last-minute turnaround, the result deals a heavy blow to Brussels, which had been keen to welcome a wealthy new member and appeared willing to compromise with Iceland on thorny issues to facilitate its accession.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this story.