ABSTRACT
Denmark adopted for almost a quarter of a century a unique position within the EC/EU. It was the only Nordic country to join the EC in the 1970s, yet as Danish politicians in favour of integration often pointed out, Denmark had not abandoned Norden in favour of the EC, it was, on the contrary, acting as a ‘bridge-builder’ between the two. But the history of Denmark’s participation in the EC/EU has not only been one of balancing or, in the best cases, uniting the ‘emotional attachment to the North’ with ‘the economic attractions of the EEC’ (Miljan 1977: 169). It has also been the story of what Miljan aptly termed an ‘anxious European’ with a European record in referenda over EC/EU related questions: the referendum on accession in 1972 was followed by one in 1986 on the Single European Act, and then in the 1990s no less than three were held: one in June 1992 on the Maastricht Treaty, the defeat of which led to one on the Edinburgh Amendment on 18 May 1993; the Amsterdam Treaty was accepted on 28 May 1998. More recently, on 28 September 2000, a Danish accession to the third stage of the EMU was rejected by 53.2 per cent. This frequent use of referenda, and their close and shifting results have contributed to making the European issue one of the most contested, polarised and sensitive in current Danish politics.
