Editorial: El Mundo

• Iceland has rejected the negotiations to join the EU, highlighting a loss of appeal from the European project.
• Iceland's population has backed economic integration with Europe, but without full membership in the Union.
• Aspects of self-government, such as fishery resource management, have been more important to Icelandic citizens than abstract arguments about European integration.
• Iceland will continue to be linked to the European market, but outside the institutions that make decisions.
• This situation demonstrates that economic integration does not necessarily lead to political integration.
• The impossibility of Iceland's accession has a geopolitical dimension for the Union, as the Arctic is a valuable strategic place in dispute between major powers such as Russia, the US and China.

Conclusion: Iceland's decision reinforces the idea that economic arguments are not always sufficient to drive political integration and weakens the European Union's strategic presence in the Arctic.

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