Denmark

Abstract

Following a referendum in October 1972, Denmark joined the European Community on 1 January 1973, together with the UK and Ireland, in the first round of enlargements. Denmark participated in the first direct elections to the European Parliament (EP) in June 1979. Denmark is not a full member of economic and monetary union and has not introduced the euro, despite the fact that from 1982 the krone was pegged to the Deutschmark, and later the European currency. As of 2009, Denmark also fulfilled the convergency criteria for Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). In June 1992, the Maastricht Treaty was narrowly defeated in a referendum, and as a consequence, the Danish government negotiated four opt-outs from the Treaty relating to EU citizenship, parts of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) cooperation, Foreign and Security Policy and participation in the third stage of the EMU. The opt-outs were formally confirmed in a second referendum, held in May 1993. The government under Poul Nyrup Rasmussen called a referendum on full Danish membership of the EMU in September 2000, but the proposal to adopt the euro was defeated with a ‘no’ vote of 53 per cent. Turnout in this referendum was 87.6 per cent. While committed to revoking the opt-outs, the present government under Lars Løkke Rasmussen has refused to set a timetable for possible future referendums on the opt-outs, including the one on the EMU.