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Denmark won't follow Britain's EU direction, minister says

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Published 07 May 2013, updated 08 May 2013

Britain and Denmark, the EU countries with perhaps the most eurosceptic populations, are both celebrating 40 years as EU members in 2013. But while Britain is debating whether to leave the EU, Denmark's European affairs minister says his country has no intention of going in the same direction. 

Nicolai Wammen, minister for European Affairs, said that Denmark wants to be as close to the core of the EU as possible because he believes this serves Danish interest best.

And while euroscepticism is running high across the channel, Wammen insists that Denmark is not on the same EU track as Britain.

"We have no intentions of going in the direction which the British government has set up for Britain," Wammen told EurActiv in an interview.

Denmark currently has four opt-outs from common EU policies: Security and defence; citizenship; freedom, security and justice; and the economic and monetary union. This is just as many as the UK, which opts in on a case-by-case basis on most matters related to security and justice.

Wammen said Denmark's centre-left government wants a closer cooperation with the EU and wants a referendum in Denmark on the justice and defence opt-outs. 

"But right now there is a lot of turbulence around the EU and therefore, it is not the right time to have a referendum," he said.

Closer cooperation with Brussels

In parliament, Danish politicians are generally quite EU-friendly. But the widespread scepticism towards Europe among the Danish public makes it difficult for the government to carry out its ambition of getting closer to the EU's core, with any referendum on the matter likely to be negative.

As a result, further Danish EU integration currently looks unlikely.

The Social-Democrat minister even acknowledged that it is sometimes difficult keeping a debate going about Europe in his country. The financial and economic crisis has had such a damaging effect on Danish perceptions of Europe that many are turning their backs against the euro and European integration in historical numbers.

According to a survey by TNS Gallup for the newspaper Berlingske Tidende, support for replacing the Danish krone with the euro is now at its lowest since the newspaper started measuring the Danes' euro sentiment in 1996.

Only 22% of those surveyed said they would vote in favour of adopting the euro in a referendum.

The new black sheep?

If Britain left the EU, Denmark would be left in the peculiar situation of replacing Britain as the most semi-detached EU member.

However, Wammen said this is not how he is viewing his country's EU position.

"Denmark is the country, among the 10 countries that don’t have the euro, which has made the closest connections to the euro countries. This means that we are as close to the core as possible," the minister said.

He highlighted that Denmark has chosen to be part of the Euro Plus Pact though that was not required of the country as a non-euro member, and that the Scandinavian country is also working constructively in the banking union negotiations.

"So from Denmark’s side we have shown that we are part of the negotiations and that we while respecting our opt-outs work closely with the other countries," Wammen stated.

Keeping a strong bond with Britain

Maintaining close ties with Britain is also a top priority for Denmark, as the UK is perceived as a close ally and trade partner.

To a large extent, Denmark joined the EU due to British membership. And even if the UK eventually decided to leave the EU, he believes Denmark's relationship with Britain would not change dramatically.

"I don’t expect Britain to leave the EU. And no matter how Britain is linked to the EU after a referendum, Britain will remain an ally, we will remain good friends and we will keep working closely together," Wammen said.

Euro not in sight

Euro membership is a more sensitive issue. Despite statements by the Danish central bank saying that it would be in Denmark's interest to adopt the single currency and the government's "positive" view of the euro, Denmark is unlikely change course at any point in the foreseeable future, Wammen said. And in any case, the government has no intention of organising a referendum on the matter.

"The Danes have decided to have an opt-out and nothing looks as if the population has changed its mind regarding this question so there isn’t any referendum in our work programme," the European affairs minister stressed.

Latvia has decided to join the euro without holding a referendum. But such a move would not be possible in Denmark, Wammen said.

"Regarding other EU countries, joining the euro eventually was a condition for their EU membership. These are two different situations which you cannot compare," the minister explained.

>> Read the full interview with Nicolai Wammen

Henriette Jacobsen

COMMENTS

  • Well, how refreshing, an EU member, with a considerable number of Euroskeptics, but whose government is mature enough to nuance their policies without scapegoating the EU or attempting to politicize reactionary sentiments.

    By :
    Earl Bell
    - Posted on :
    07/05/2013
  • Different position UK is net donor to the eussr Denmark is net recipient, UK is better off out Denmark gets to much free money to leave.

    By :
    Barry Davies
    - Posted on :
    07/05/2013
  • Try ask danish people in a referendum if they agree with this europhile minister.
    The danish opt outs were gotten by pupular decision in referendum and against politicians will.

    By :
    Rui
    - Posted on :
    07/05/2013
  • The UK is one of the top 4 contributors to the EU. The UK population are entitled to know what there taxes are being spent on
    So far nobody has come forward with a list of things our money get spent on and until someone does it is very hard to justify to taxpayers why we should continue wasting their money

    By :
    Paul X
    - Posted on :
    07/05/2013
  • Mr X - your first two sentences were fair comment. In asnwer to your second two (contained in the third sentence):
    a) the EU budget profiles how money is spent - you know how much the Uk contributes, & you know how much it gets back ergo you know how the net contribution is spent.
    b) you make an assertion "wasting tax payer money" - how is taxpayers money wasted? to what degree? on what? - until you can answer this you are making an unsubstantiated assertion - like me saying I just saw a couple of kippers walking down the street.

    By :
    Mike Parr
    - Posted on :
    08/05/2013
  • Mike Parr you are wrong the independent auditors of the eu have been unable to sign off the the eu finances for 20 consecutive years because they can not trace where the money goes to, there is an annual loss of millions of euros.

    That being the case we have no idea where our money goes because the eu itself apparently has no idea either.

    Any British taxpayers money spent on propping up the euro, or subsidising a democratically deficient level of governance which seems hell bent on destroying our nation is a waste of our taxpayers money, we gain nothing from being a member of this economic black hole.

    I would suggest your kippers had been stolen by ants if they were walking down the road, most likely the ants are from a foreign country.

    By :
    Barry Davies
    - Posted on :
    09/05/2013
  • Mr Davies - & the budget of the EU is??? (hint billions) - the qualification of the accounts occurs because of failures on the side of the member states (like the UK) in keeping their books straight with respect to, for example, farm subsides (in the UK one of the major beneficiaries is Mrs Windsor & her spawn).

    For around 99.9% of the budget you do know how "your" money is spent. UK taxpayers money does not prop up the Euro - it does however prop up tax dodging UK banks.

    In terms of "destroying the UK" I think you need to look 'oop north - with respect to entities intent on destroying the UK.

    By :
    Mike Parr
    - Posted on :
    09/05/2013
  • Mr Parr you are clearly a died in the wood europhile and are looking through rose tinted glasses. Where the pitiful amount of our money returned from the eussr goes on farmers is down to eussr regulations.

    Nations have to have their books signed off as to where the money goes, and the budgets of said nations are based on those figures, the eussr seems to think that it can demand huge over inflation rate increases in it's already bloated subsidies from the net contributors.

    I think you will find that the number of Scots wanting to leave the UK has been exaggerated, unlike the ever growing numbers of people not only in the UK but also other countries that want to leave the eussr, Germany the major net contributed in particular, although they seem to be the only individual nation with any clout in the democratically deficient corruption ridden entity that is run by the unelected Barrosso with the unelected rumpy as his mouthpiece, and a bunch of unelected judges making up the law as they go along.

    The eussr has had its chance, and failed, Globalisation is what is now happening and where our economy has its future.

    By :
    Barry Davies
    - Posted on :
    09/05/2013
  • Mr Davies, deficits eh? certainly a spelling one on your part "died in the wood" sorry old chap I'm alive & kicking. "Books signed off" oh please - running a nation like a corner shop? (oh hang on - you had somebody from a corner shop running the UK). "ever growing numbers" ah you will thus have the data to show us how they are ever growing?........ thought not.

    Rumpy as Barosso's mouthpiece eh? rumpy is the mouthpiece of the council - on which Mr Camoron sits - so more accurately perhaps you meant: rumpy as C'morons mouthpiece - an interesting concept - you are nothing if not original sir.

    I'm a bit confused on the "judges making the rules up as they go along" Which judges & what rules do they make up? Suggestion with respect to next response: engage brain before hitting the keyboard.

    By :
    Mike Parr
    - Posted on :
    09/05/2013
  • That you are confused is self evident Mr. Parr, no one with any clarity of vision outside of the self serving failed politicians running the eussr could think that it is a stable entity, or that it has any chance of surviving without internal terrorism as nations become fed up of foreigners coming in willy nilly to try to enforce their credo's, and ideations on to previously stable countries.

    By :
    Barry Davies
    - Posted on :
    10/05/2013
  • Gentlemen, please; leave the personal out of the comments; also, wild negative assertions, without specifics, do not deserve a response.

    By :
    Earl Bell
    - Posted on :
    10/05/2013
  • neither do wild positive assertions that have been shown to be untrue Mr. Bell

    By :
    Barry Davies
    - Posted on :
    10/05/2013
  • for example?

    By :
    Earl Bell
    - Posted on :
    10/05/2013
  • you are the one who referred to negative responses I wa just balancing it out Mr Bell

    By :
    Barry Davies
    - Posted on :
    10/05/2013
  • If the rise of UKIP had not shaken the coalition to the core here, would there be such a knee jerk reaction on the subject of leaving the EU.

    I feel that to leave is the easy way out in a round about way, to stay and look into other avenues that we can agree to move forward, is the braver alternative.

    By :
    Helen Dudden
    - Posted on :
    11/05/2013
  • Nicolai Wammen of Denmark is saying the same as David Cameron and much good may it do them both . Danish people are Eurosceptic the same as British people .
    It is very difficult to govern a country when the knife of the people is at your back . No matter what the arguments for and against the EU ; for all its programmes and agenda , innumerable ways of misspending , wasting money ; the Eurozone seems doomed beyond recovery and the EU itself having an uncertain future .
    As things stand , David Cameron and the British Conservative Party will lose the 2015 general election ; so the likelyhood of an IN/OUT referendum on Britain's membership of the EU in the foreseeable future is uncertain .
    As the EU stumbles incompetently toward a single unified federal state , that people of member states will have to be asked , otherwise there will be demonstrations and riots right across Europe .
    I note that Nicolai Wammen is representing a left of centre , socialist , government . The EU has taken on a socialist image , EUSSR .

    By :
    David Barneby
    - Posted on :
    12/05/2013
  • The EU does much that is good and necessary, for example, it has become one of the world's most generous providers of assistance to help improve the lives of the world's poorest people. Without more balance in the judgments aimed at its flaws, and there are many, criticism is little more than the bugbear of the intemperate.

    By :
    Earl Bell
    - Posted on :
    12/05/2013
  • Earl Bell

    I do not see that the EU becoming one of the world's most generous providers , to help improve the lives of the world's poorest people is a virtue , when many EU countries have failed economies and many people out of work . Nearly every EU country is running a debt and is governed on borrowed money . It is just those ways that the EU provides aid for poor countries that is open to wide abuse and fraud .
    In My view , Charity Begins At Home !!!

    By :
    David Barneby
    - Posted on :
    12/05/2013
  • If such logic prevailed at the level of policy, it would be appropriate to argue that the United States should not invest millions in the fight against AIDs in Africa until they have cure poverty in the USA. As you probably know, AIDs spread from Africa throughout the world. We live in an increasingly interdependent world that does not honor national borders, regardless of who wins the political fight between the nationalist and internationalist.

    By :
    Earl Bell
    - Posted on :
    12/05/2013
  • Earl bell

    It is questionable whether any logic prevails at the level of policy . the USA has more people of African heritage than most other western countries . You say that AIDS originated in Africa , it is understandable to try to eliminate AIDS at its source when there is a primary danger of it spreading to one's own country .
    Poverty is a state of mind , that often knows no better . Copulating with monkeys and other African sexual preferences is very difficult to overcome . The increasing interdependence of countries around the world does not respect national borders . When you refer to the US expenditure abroad , their military springs first to mind ; endeavouring to occupy almost every country around the world with military forces . Vast sums of money , that could have been more humanely spent at home , have been squandered in
    Vietnam , Iraq , Afganistan to name a few .

    By :
    David Barneby
    - Posted on :
    12/05/2013
  • Not responsive on making policy in a increasingly interdependent world. What does US military expenditure abroad have to do with what is under discussion? In this context it falls under woulda, coulda, shoulda.

    By :
    Earl Bell
    - Posted on :
    12/05/2013
  • Earl Bell

    You raised the subject regarding the US not spending money on AIDS in Africa , to help the poor at home .
    Far more is spent by the US military than is spent on humanitarian aid to fight aids and poverty in Africa .

    By :
    David Barneby
    - Posted on :
    12/05/2013
  • It is very difficult to govern a country when the knife of the people is at your back .

    By : David Barneby - Posted on : 12/05/2013

    America has the phrase government of the people by the people for the people, they do not consider the voice of the people being a knife in your back. you appear to think that the self serving political class should be allowed to do what they like no matter how much the people are against it.

    Getting a knife in the back is far more likely to be a member of the non political class when riots break out around the previously free nations when racism caused by the eussr freedom of movement raises its head in countries where the nationals get fed up of losing jobs to foreigners and are paying more tax to let them live in their countries.

    By :
    Barry Davies
    - Posted on :
    14/05/2013
  • Barry Davies

    A knife at you back , is an expression .

    I think my post is quite clear and I cannot understand how you manage to misinterpret what I wrote .
    It is quite clear to me that the selfserving political class , as you put it ,are doing what they like , in the full knowledge that the people are against it .
    The knife at their back , is that they risk a certainty of being voted out of office at the next general election .

    It has become customary within Britain for the government to ignore the wishes of the people , the
    " Government of the people by the people for the people ", has become to a large extent defunct , both in America and in Europe .

    A majority of British people want a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU and they want OUT .

    By :
    David Barneby
    - Posted on :
    14/05/2013
  • I don't think you can keep on issues and the details. If you wish to discuss policy, like adults, great. If not, enjoy your opinions, regardless of the facts.

    By :
    Earl Bell
    - Posted on :
    14/05/2013
  • Earl Bell

    You talk about adults , I guess you consider yourself to be one . Discuss Policy , what policy do you discuss ? You are pleased to note a Danish foreign minister expounding his socialist governments policy , in a coutry where the people are staunchly Eurosceptic .
    The EU is a socialist bureaucratic institute whose policies are for the engrandisment of the EU , at the expense of the citizens . As a socialist , one might expect Wammen to want to be as close to the heart of Europe as possible , EUSSR , I guess your political leaning is in that direction too . When people start talking about discussing like adults , it's usually because they have no answer , nothing to contribute .
    What policies do you want to discuss ?

    By :
    David Barneby
    - Posted on :
    15/05/2013
Nicolai Wammen
Background: 

Denmark obtained four opt-outs from the Maastricht Treaty following the treaty's initial rejection in a 1992 referendum.

The opt-outs are outlined in the Edinburgh Agreement and concern the Monetary Union (EMU), the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and the Citizenship of the European Union.

With these opt-outs, the Danes accepted the treaty in a second referendum held in 1993. In 2000, Danes rejected a referendum on adopting the euro.

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