Copenhagen / Brussels, 28/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - Many Danes turned out to vote for or against their country's accession to European single currency as polling began on Thursday 28 September. The results of this very close vote should be known from 22h00 on. Some four million people were called to the urns and (what is more unusual) the results of a recent survey were still being televised on Danish TV at 14h00, five hours after voting began. According to the opinion poll, which has a margin of error of around 3%, the "no" would win with 52.5% of the votes and the "yes" side would have only 47.5%. The results of a second poll broadcast at 16h00 said there would be 52.1% for "no" and 47.9% for "yes". Results of one last poll will be broadcast just twenty minutes before urns close.
Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen expressed the hope that the Danes would, on Thursday, "vote with their hearts and their head because this is decisive for the future of the country and its place in the European family". "I think we have a chance, but it will be very close", Mr Rasmussen stated. Niels Helveg Petersen, Foreign Minister, told the press that Denmark had a "defence plan" for the krone should the "no" votes win the day. We have "already proved that we are able to defend the krone against speculation", he declared, adding: "If, as I hope, the yes wins, then Denmark will gain influence" within the EU. This week the ministers for the economy, Marianne Jelved, and for finance, Mogens Lykketoft, affirmed that a "no" victory would cause, in Denmark, over coming years, a rise in interest rates and a loss of 15,000-20,000 jobs (but no "immediate deterioration" of the Danish economy, said Ms Jelved). In the "no" camp, European elected member of the June movement, Ulla Sandbaek, rejected single currency, which, she says, will be the "driving force" towards a "federal State". She expressed the fear that "there will always be more and more Europe". (See in EUROPE of 18/19 September, p .15, for comments by Jens Peter Bonde, also European elected member of the June Movement and co-president of the Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities).
European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Pedro Solbes affirmed for his part that, if the "yes" wins, it will be a good thing for the euro and for Denmark. He went on to say that, if the "no" wins, he does not see this as a problem for the euro area, even though there could be some problems for the Danish economy.
European elected CDU member Karl von Wogau felt that all objective arguments are in favour of Denmark joining single currency. Denmark fulfils the convergence criteria since the beginning of single currency and, if it says "yes" today, it will have a seat and a vote at the European Central Bank, which would give it considerably more influence, noted the former chairman of the EP Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Furthermore, he stressed the interest that a small country like Denmark, with exports equivalent to about half of its economic performance, has in the stability of exchange rates. Denmark's entry to single currency would increase GDP in the euro zone by about 2½ , which will hardly have any monetary or "real" effect, said Mr von Wogau, while noting that the "yes" would have a major political impact, as it would be a sign of confidence in single currency for other candidates to accept the euro (a reference, of course, to Sweden and the United Kingdom).
This referendum on the euro is the sixth organised in Denmark on Europe, after those of: 2 October 1972 on membership to the European Community: 63.3% yes, 36.7% no (rate of participation: 90.1%); - 2 February 1986 on the Single Act: 56.2% yes, 43.8% no (turnout: 75.4%); - 2 June 1992 on the Maastricht Treaty: 50.7% no, 49.3% yes (turnout: 82.3%); - 18 May 1993 on the revised Maastricht Treaty (to include the four "opt outs" on currency, defence, police and judicial cooperation and European citizenship): 56.8% yes, 43.2% no (participation: 86.2%); - 28 May 1998, on the Amsterdam Treaty: 55.1% yes, 44.9% no (turnout: 74.8%).