Danish referendum on EU opt-outs abandoned

(COPENHAGEN) - Denmark has abandoned plans for an imminent referendum on its four EU opt-outs because of uncertainty following the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty, the prime minister said in an interview Friday.

"We initially thought we would discuss the EU this autumn and perhaps organise a popular vote," explained Danish premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen in an interview published in the daily Jyllands-Posten.

"But because of the problems caused by the Irish referendum it is no longer the most pressing issue."

He said a referendum on whether to drop one or some of the Danish opt-outs to its membership of the European Union has been postponed to an unspecified date.

"We still believe the exemptions hinder Denmark and the fairest thing would be to give people a vote on the issue during the current parliament (in principle until November 2011)," said Rasmussen, who leads the ruling centre-right coalition.

"But it is too early to propose another date for a referendum while the Irish situation remains unclear," he added.

The rejection of the EU's Lisbon reform treaty in Ireland, the only country which required a referendum, threw the 27-nation bloc's plans to streamline its decision-making into turmoil. The treaty requires the approval of all member states.

Denmark was granted four opt-outs in December 1992 after it initially rejected the EU's Maastricht Treaty in a June 1992 referendum.

The exemptions allowed it to remain outside the eurozone, the EU joint defence policy, judicial cooperation and European citizenship.

Danes then approved the Maastricht Treaty in a new referendum in May 1993.