Danish PM says possible autumn referendum on EU opt-outs
(COPENHAGEN) - Denmark may call a referendum in the autumn on one or several of its exemptions from the European Union, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Tuesday.
"We are not excluding any dates, but autumn is one of the possibilities. We will be discussing this with the parties. Nothing has yet been decided. It could be this autumn, or at a later date," he explained at a press conference.
This was the first time Rasmussen had raised the possibility of an autumn referendum, previously saying only that one would take place during the government's current mandate which concludes in November 2011.
Denmark was granted four exemptions from the EU in December 1992 (on the euro, the EU joint defence policy, judicial cooperation and European citizenship) following its initial rejection, by referendum, of the EU's Maastricht Treaty in June the same year.
The opt-outs enabled the government to organise another plebiscite in May 1993, after which the treaty was adopted.
Rasmussen did not specify on Tuesday whether the government would include all the exemptions in a single referendum, or whether each would be put separately to the population.
"This will be the object of discussions in parliament in coming weeks," Rasmussen said.
Asked specifically about adopting the euro, a measure previously rejected by referendum in 2000, the leader of the Liberal-Conservative government would not say whether the issue would again be put to the people.
According to the prime minister, the Danish parliament was due to adopt the Lisbon Treaty on Thursday, by a large majority.
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