Iceland will hold a referendum on Aug. 29 on whether to resume EU membership negotiations. Should Icelanders vote “yes”?

As a member of the European Economic Area, the Schengen Area, and the European Free Trade Association, Iceland already enjoys the EU’s free movement of goods, services, people, and capital. It applies the same regulatory standards to its financial sector as EU member states do, and Icelanders and visitors to Iceland can travel throughout most of Europe without a passport check.

But Iceland does not participate in EU decision-making; it is exempt from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy; and it retains its own currency. If Iceland, with its roughly 400,000 people, were to join the EU, it would have a seat on the European Council, where its vote would have equal weight with that of the EU’s most populous countries.

That is no small matter. As a country with a small population, it would have little power to block ordinary EU decisions. But on many questions that member states view as sensitive, the European Council requires unanimity.

Of course, being required to join CAP is a downside, and Icelanders see the CFP as a serious sticking point. The country would be subject to fishing quotas and fishery management rules determined by the EU, and it would have to accept shared access to certain waters. Its fishing industry and fishing communities could suffer significant losses. Still, since Iceland’s desirable location makes it strategically valuable to the EU, it has some bargaining power, and some have already........

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