ABSTRACT
Denmark is often cited as an example par excellence of the onward march of European unity threatened by national identity. Indeed, our editors, in their introduction to this volume, refer to Hedetoft’s suggestion that the Danish rejection of Maastricht in the first (1992) referendum on the Treaty may have first alerted academics to the need for more studies of identity in the EU context. One of the most intriguing things about Denmark in this respect is that while, on the one hand, it has a deserved reputation as a conscientious and co-operative member of the EU with respect to its observance of European legislation and directives, it has, on the other, proved to be politically somewhat ‘awkward’ in its dogged popular scepticism about the terms and conditions of membership at all.
