Brussels, 25/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - The Danish government is expected to organise a referendum in September or October 2008 on whether to scrap some of all of its opt-outs from the European Union - on joining the euro, cooperation on defence issues, justice and home affairs and European citizenship - this newsletter has learnt from reliable sources during the visit of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to Brussels on Thursday 24 January to meet European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and EU High Representative for the CFSP Javier Solana.
The diplomat noted that people in Copenhagen felt the 'time was ripe' for Denmark to be 'at the heart of Europe'. The Danish government knows this will not be possible until the country is fully involved in decision-making in key areas like monetary policy, defence and JHA. No decisions have yet been taken on the exact details of the referendum (a single referendum on all the opt-outs on the same day or a separate referendum on each opt-out, one after the other), but the Danish government is determined to drop the four opt-outs this year that it won after Denmark's rejection of the Maastricht Treaty in a referendum in 1992.
Denmark feels that its abolition of the opt-outs would send a strong signal to Eurosceptics in other member states, like the United Kingdom, which have similar opt-outs and which even gained more during the negotiations for the Lisbon Treaty.
Polls suggest that the majority of Danes would back their country's participation in the EU defence policy. Debate over whether Denmark should join the euro will be essentially political in nature. Joining the euro would not have a huge impact on the country's economy because the Danish crown is already connected to the euro within a very tight band of fluctuation, 2.25% in either direction. Recent polls suggest that a slight majority of Danes back joining the euro. The opt-out on JHA, however, is far more controversial for Danes, and government circles comment that Danes are very keen to keep their own policy on immigration. Hence the Danish government's plan to replace the current opt-out with an opt-in (this option is expressly mentioned in the Protocol to the Lisbon Treaty). In practice, Denmark would consider joining 95% of the EU's JHA decisions, but not joining immigration decisions. The opt-out on European citizenship has lost most of its meaning since the Amsterdam Treaty and its scrapping is therefore not expected to cause problems. (H.B.)