The comments come just four days before Icelanders vote on reopening membership talks
Iceland could be ready to join the EU in the next one to two years, Marta Kos, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, has said.
The Nordic island will vote on Saturday in a knife-edge referendum on whether to restart EU membership talks. If talks resume, Iceland would immediately become a front-runner to join the club, alongside Montenegro, which has been a candidate since 2010.
“Already part of the single market, it could finalise accession negotiations in one to two years from now,” the European commissioner said, addressing a foreign ministry conference in Croatia. Finalising accession talks is not the final step to joining the EU; countries need to draft a treaty that must be ratified by all national governments, a process that typically takes a year.
Icelandic officials have privately urged the European Commission not to wade into the heated debate. A poll by Maskína, published on Tuesday by a newspaper called Visir, suggests the race is neck-and-neck, with a slight advantage to the Yes side. 51.3% of respondents said yes, while 48.7% said no to restarting membership talks with Brussels.
