New survey suggests most Danes want to get rid of the country’s 17-year EU treaty exceptions

A majority of Danes would probably vote yes if a referendum were held tomorrow to abolish all four Danish EU opt-outs, according to a Ritzau/Catinét Research poll.

In the survey, 42.9 percent of those questioned said they would vote yes in such a referendum, while 32.6 percent said they would vote no. A large group is still in doubt, however, with 24.5 percent responding they did not know whether they were in favour of getting rid of the opt-outs or not.

Denmark negotiated the four exceptions in 1992 when its voters rejected the Maastricht Treaty in a referendum. To get the treaty passed, the country was allowed opt-outs in the areas of common defence, justice, currency and citizenship, of which only the first three still remain valid.

Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in June that the issue deserved immediate attention, but not before the Lisbon Treaty was ratified. He has since backed off that stance and now says he is not certain whether it is in Denmark’s interests to address all three remaining opt-outs at once.

The Liberal-Conservative government has instead suggested voting on each opt-out separately.

Rasmussen is scheduled to discuss the issue at parliament on 25 November.

The Socialist People’s Party (SF) and the Social Liberals have indicated they want referenda on the justice and defence matters, but would prefer to wait on the euro issue.

According to the poll, a majority of SF voters would vote no to abolishing all the opt-outs at once, despite that they are generally opposed to doing away with the exceptions.