Iceland rejects EU-accession talks plan in referendum

BREAKING: Iceland votes to reject reopening EU accession talks, with the 'No' camp on 52.5% against 47.5% in a tight referendum.

Iceland just told Brussels no thanks, 52.5 to 47.5.

Voters were asked whether to reopen EU accession talks, and the answer came back no in a genuinely tight race. You can see them casting ballots here, a small country deciding a very big question. Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir had called it a now or never moment, and she's promised the EU question stays off the table for the rest of her mandate, through 2028.

The deal breaker was fish. Ninety percent of Iceland's fishing companies opposed membership, and no amount of creative solutions from Brussels could talk them round. The No campaign packed sovereignty and fishing waters into one argument, and it worked.

For the EU this stings. They wanted a wealthy new member to make enlargement look attractive. Instead, a nation of under four hundred thousand people just handed Brussels its hardest rejection in years.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.