EU referendum delayed for a year
The Copenhagen Post
June 17, 2005
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has postponed the national referendum on the EU constitutional treaty for at least a year
Denmark's planned national referendum on the European Union's constitutional treaty was called off for at least one year on Thursday, after the 25 EU member states agreed on a pause to ponder the treaty's massive rejections in France and Holland.
'Based on that background, we agree to postpone the Danish referendum,' announced Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen Thursday evening at the EU summit, currently being held in Brussels. 'There's no ground to ask Danes to participate in a referendum. We accept the consequences of that and have postponed.'
The decision did not come as a surprise to the nation, but removed the last hint of doubt whether the government would call off the planned referendum on 27 September.
The chief reason for the postponement was the leaders' inability to come to a decision over the future of the draft constitutional treaty, hard hit by French and Dutch 'no' votes.
EU leaders will meet again in one year after their period of reflection.
Daily newspaper Politiken reported that Rasmussen informed other Danish political parties supporting the treaty of his decision, before making a public announcement. Support for the move was unanimous.
'We asked for clarity, but we haven't gotten it. It would have been unfair to send an unclear treaty to a vote,' said opposition Social Democratic chairman Helle Thorning-Schmidt, whose prognosis for the constitution was grim. 'I think it looks pretty bad. The patient isn't doing so well.'
The nation's third-largest party, the EU-sceptic Danish People's Party, which typically supplies the minority government its majority, was satisfied with the postponement.
'I'm so happy that the idea of a constitution for Europe has been dropped,' said People's Party EU spokesman Morten Messerschmidt. 'That's not what Europeans want, and we should be happy that politicians for once listen to their constituencies.'
Rasmussen would not say whether or when he thought the treaty would be put to the vote in Denmark, but said he thought that one-year pause to think the European project over would be a good idea.
'An active pause to reflect, which should be used for a broad debate in every member country,' he said.
After the summit, EU leaders did not seem to know whether the postponement would prevent new countries, such as Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, to joint the union in coming years.
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