Many parties have, to date, ruled this out because of the anti-immigrant stance of the party. In late November 2000 the Faroe government cancelled a referendum on Faroe autonomy, hoping instead to resume negotiations with the Danish government. The current budgetary support arrangements expire by the end of 2001. On the whole, Danes are very cautious about giving up their national autonomy in significant areas to an EU dominated by the interests of much larger countries. On the other hand, the opt-outs mean that Denmark loses any influence over significant areas of EU policy and over time this will render EU membership less meaningful.
Immigration policy is also a significant political issue.
The Government has introduced tougher immigration requirements, but polls show a high level of public support for an even tougher approach to immigrants and asylum seekers. The Conservative opposition parties have used this to increase their support and announced that should they win government they would use Denmark's EU opt-out on justice issues to ensure that it could maintain tighter rules against immigration and asylum seekers than other EU countries. The Danish economy has experienced moderate growth and full employment over recent years. Fiscal restraint in 1998, aimed at dampening rapid growth in the early 1990s has been effective in bringing growth to a more sustainable rate, but export growth and consumer demand have picked up again since early 1999. GDP growth for 2000 was higher than expected at an estimated 2.9 percent, but decreased to 1.2 percent during the first three months of 2001 as a result of the general global financial recession.