Denmark:Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he wants the country to adopt the euro and plans a referendum on the currency and other Danish EU opt-outs before 2011.
"Now is the right time to let Danes decide," Mr Rasmussen told reporters in comments to TV2 News yesterday.
A majority of Danes supports adopting a single currency, according to a poll by the Greens Analysis Institute published on September 5th.
Denmark already meets the criteria for membership; it pegs the krone to the euro in a 2.25 per cent band and has a 4.6 per cent budget surplus, the highest in the European Union. Inflation was 1.8 per cent in October.
Mr Rasmussen said the electorate would also be asked to vote on the other three opt-outs from common EU policies Denmark was granted after it rejected the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.
The exemptions, from common defence, justice and home affairs policy, and Union citizenship, mean Denmark is "excluded from a large part of the co-operation" within the EU, Mr Rasmussen said in his government programme presented yesterday. "It's the government's view that the EU opt-outs damage Danish interests," he added.
In a previous referendum in September 2000, Danes voted 53 per cent to 47 per cent against euro membership. Fifty-two per cent of Danes now want the euro to replace the krone, the Greens poll showed.
Local media have suggested Mr Rasmussen could seek the job of EU president after completing his current term as prime minister.
- (Bloomberg)