From: rjh02@bk.dk (Rene Jul-Hansen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Denmark and EU.
Date: 6 Apr 92 11:06:44 GMT


If you follow the Danish debate about the EU (European Union) it is
sometimes difficult to locate the real problems. Most of it is mixed
up with popular slogans like: "Without the EU the Danish economy would
suffer a blow that would put us back to the 50's" or "The EU means
abandoning all national parlamentarism", both arguments are of course
a lot of rubbish. 

The problem with the Danish debate is the quality of the information at
hand, since both Pros and Cons do their utmost to scare people into
voting whatever they would like them to vote.

It is truly difficult to establish a valid guess or estimate for what
the future holds in store for Denmark both inside and outside the EU,
but I think that most people would appreciate if the debate would gain
a level or two in quality. 

The debate itself is highly concentrated on the matter of influence on
legislation in the various countries, and Denmark in particular. 

We would like to get as many of the bonuses of the Danish society put
into the EU as possible. And at the same time we would like to
maintain our position as net-cash-receiver from the EEC/EU. We don't
like our farmers or fishermen step down on their activity, just
because it, all in all, may be better for the EEC as a whole. 

A lot of people are really affraid of losing the national currency,
the "krone". The history of the Danish currency only goes back to
somewhere 100 or 200 years ago (1840's I think), before that we had
all sorts of different currencies as valid means of payment. We had
"mark" and "skilling" just to name two, and don't they sound familiar?

What perhaps is funniest of it all is, that more and more Danes prefer
CreditCards. 

Well, I'm getting into a Pro argument, which I didn't really intend to
go further into.

A few things I remember from the Danish debate in parlaiment.

On Con member talked about how strange it was that Eastern Europe was
dismantling their "Common Market" and of course he was reminded of how
the EEC was created by voluntary members whereas in Eastern Europe...

And then some Pro brought the military dimension into the debate which
made it all drift into something about the Western Defence Union, and
then the Cons made the day.

There was however an interesting point about what would happen if the
Danes said NO (quite a theory :-). Could the Mastrich Treaty be
re-opened and re-negotiated?

The Foreign Secretary, Mr. Uffe Elleman Jensen, made quite a good
assumption on this. The essence was something like: "It would not
bring the process to a halt. The rest of the EEC would continue to
integrate their EU, they might call it something else, but the
contents would be the same. The Danes would de facto become second
class member or associated member. And only if the modifications to
the Mastrich Treaty suggested by the Danes were agreable by the rest
the Danes would stand a chance of getting into EU again."

The Pros said that this was against the principles of the EEC, but as
Mr. Ellemann Jensen very justly said: "The formality of the process
would be indisputable, but the result would be as he had just
explained".

During the following day several "experts" on EEC legal matters
discussed the issue in the media, but none of them could really tell
whether Mr. Ellemann Jensen was right or not.

I wonder how the question would have been answered in other countries?

And I take it that this question really is of any relevans in the
minor EEC countries. If, say France, was to say NON to the EU it would
probably mean that the Mastrich Treaty would have to be completely
rewritten. 

- - -
The opinions stated are mine and mine alone. - 
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