Iceland, Rattled by Trump’s Greenland Threats, Weighs Joining the E.U.

Iceland has stood apart from the rest of Europe. But President Trump’s threats to Greenland have provoked a reconsideration.

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An Icelandic Coast Guard pilot surveying a glacier-covered volcano in Iceland in February. The Coast Guard is in charge of monitoring threats coming to Iceland.Credit...

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By Amelia Nierenberg

Visuals by Sergey Ponomarev

Amelia Nierenberg and Sergey Ponomarev sailed with cod fishers, flew with the Coast Guard and visited with officials, hot dog vendors and others across Iceland to report this article.

May 26, 2026

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Iceland is in Europe. But it is not in the European Union.

For a long time, that was just fine for Iceland, which has fiercely protected its independence — and its control over its fishing industry.

Not so much anymore. In recent months, the top of the world has felt precarious as President Trump repeatedly threatened to “get” Greenland, Iceland’s closest neighbor. And the 400,000 or so Icelanders have been seriously debating the once unthinkable: Has the time come to try to join the bloc?

“The Greenland crisis definitely hit a nerve,” Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir said in February, in an interview at her office in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital.

Image

A woman with arms folded stands by a red, white and blue flag.

Kristrun Frostadottir, the prime minister of Iceland, in her office in Reykjavik, in February. “The Greenland crisis definitely hit a nerve,” she said.

Now, she said, foreign policy is more prominent in voters’ minds: “Things have definitely shifted.”

Iceland is heading toward a referendum as soon as this summer on whether to plunge into exploratory talks with the European Union about membership. The process could take years, but the fact that there is a big debate signals a real change.

A Mutual Flirtation

Of course, the bloc does not accept just anyone. Iceland would be an attractive get.

It sits way out in the North Atlantic at the gateway to the Arctic. It would offer the European Union an important foothold in a region where superpowers are vying for dominance.

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