DENMARK:The Danish justice ministry has said there is no need to hold a referendum on the EU reform treaty because it does not transfer sovereignty from Copenhagen to Brussels.
The recommendation follows a legal review of the treaty, which is now likely to be ratified by the Danish parliament despite objections from eurosceptics.
"It is the opinion of the justice ministry that for Denmark the Lisbon treaty does not transfer new powers of the country's authorities to the union," noted the report, which was published yesterday.
"The ministry also finds that Danish ratification of the Lisbon treaty does not raise additional questions in relation to the constitution."
Under the Danish constitution, any international treaty that transfers sovereignty away from the government must be agreed to by referendum before it can be ratified.
The review is not binding and the government could still choose to hold a public vote on the treaty or be forced into a referendum if a large minority in the parliament put pressure on the administration.
But most analysts predict Denmark will now be able to avoid a potentially difficult referendum on a treaty that changes how the EU takes decisions, sets new policy goals and advances the union's foreign policy credentials.
This would leave Ireland as the only member state to put the reform treaty, which will soon be renamed the Treaty of Lisbon, to a public vote. The Government has consistently said it is obliged to put the treaty to a public vote under the terms of the Irish Constitution, although some legal scholars disagree, arguing - in a similar vein to the Danish justice ministry - that there is no transfer of sovereignty to Brussels.
"My argument is that no referendum is required, on the ground that the new reform treaty does not substantially alter the 'essential scope or objectives' of the EC/EU within the meaning of the Crotty judgment," said Dr Laurent Pech, Jean Monnet lecturer on EU law at NUI Galway, referring to the 1986 Supreme Court judgment that forced the Government to hold a referendum on the Single European Act.
Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who won a third term in elections last month, said the government would announce on December 11th whether it would give Danes a vote on the treaty.