Reshuffled Danish government presents new priorities

(COPENHAGEN) - Denmark's reshuffled centre-right government said Wednesday it had put a referendum on adopting the euro and stricter immigration rules at the top of its agenda.

The government did not set a date for a vote on entering the eurozone, but argued keeping its own currency, as well as the other exemptions Denmark was granted in 1992 when it joined the EU, went against Danish interests.

"We now see the effects of our position with regards to the common currency, at a moment when eurozone countries are strengthening their collaboration," the government wrote in its programme, adding that Denmark's economy was worse hit during the financial crisis because it was outside the eurozone.

The Danish government presented its new priorities following a massive cabinet shuffle Tuesday which saw new ministers take over the foreign affairs and defence portfolios.

It said Denmark's economy had been hurt by a growing discrepancy between Danish and eurozone interest rates, and because the country "was not sitting at the table where essential decisions where taken."

The government also said it would introduce a point system for selecting immigrants from outside the European Union.

Obtaining permanent residency status in Denmark would be granted on the basis of "a point system in which having integration capacities, such as being employed or educated, will grant points, whereas the lack of willingness to integrate will be penalised," the government wrote.

It also said it wanted to make it easier to expel immigrants who use their residency status to defraud the welfare system or disrupt public order.

As of January 1, 2010, there were 329,940 foreign residents, making up six percent of the population, living in Denmark, according to the Danish statistics office.

Denmark's finance minister Claus Hjort Fredriksen also said Wednesday the country needed to slash its public deficit by 24 billion kroner (3.2 billion euros, 4.3 billion dollars) by 2013 to meet to the EU's monetary policy criteria.

After rejecting the EU's Maastricht Treaty in 1992, Danes adopted the document in a second referendum in May 1993 after obtaining four exemptions on the euro, joint defence, judiciary cooperation and European citizenship.