Danish PM, Lars Loekke Rasmussen accepts that the government has lost the referendum on adopting EU rules, December 3, 2015. Demotix/Ole Jensen. All rights reserved. On December 3, 53% of Danish voters rejected a proposal of six parliamentary parties to replace Denmark’s long-standing opt-out from the EU’s justice and home affairs system with a case-based opt-in model.
The yes-vote would have ensured sustained participation in Europol, the EU’s police agency, plus the adaption of 22 additional legislative files. What started out as a practical issue became a general opinion poll on relations with the Union with likely impacts on Danish EU policy.
Back in June 1992, a slim majority of Danes voted against the Maastricht Treaty which created the European Union and led to the introduction of the euro. The failure resulted in the Edinburgh Agreement, a deal which accepted the Danish “national compromise” and kept Denmark within the EU, on condition that the country was granted exemptions, so called “opt-outs”, on four areas of cooperation: the adoption of the euro, security and defence, justice and home affairs (JHA), and EU citizenship.
