Danish voters voted “yes” to the European Defense Policy and thus decided on Wednesday June 1 to close a thirty-year parenthesis. Thirty years during which the small Scandinavian country had obtained a derogation within the European Union. From now on, Denmark will participate in European decisions on defence.
It is a vote that closes a page of thirty years, a page opened in 1992. Denmark had then that year made Europe tremble on its foundations, by rejecting the Maastricht Treaty. At the time, Copenhagen agreed to vote a second time and ratify the treaty, securing a series of waivers in several areas.
Since then, Denmark has cultivated its difference within the EU, by rejecting the euro, and by refusing twice, by referendum, to give up these derogations in the field of internal affairs and justice. With this vote, Denmark will therefore join the Union’s defense policy and will be able, for example, to take part in military missions under the European flag.
How can this reversal be explained? Undoubtedly by the war in Ukraine, which upset many achievements in Europe, in the field of Defence. Countries are raising their military budgets, Sweden and Finland are asking to join NATO. And Denmark is ending its European derogation.
” Denmark sent an important signal. To our allies in Europe and NATO, and to (President Vladimir) Putin. We show that when Putin invades a free country and threatens stability in Europe, the rest of us come together Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told supporters. “ There was a Europe before February 24, before the Russian invasion, and there is a Europe after “, she added.
European Union leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel welcomed the vote “ historical from Denmark.