EU 27, Croatia and Turkey are watching: With or without the Lisbon TreatyA summary of the Danish contribution to the EU 27 Watch no. 7, 2008 Research institutes from EU-27 plus Croatia and Turkey have been asked to analyse national positions on current developments in European politics, particularly, the Irish voters’ rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. This brief provides a summary of the Danish contribution to the EU-27 Watch no. 7, 2008 and concludes with a brief look to the comparative results of all the country reports. The Irish No and the following uncertainty of the future of the Lisbon Treaty had a significant impact on the Danish opt-outs as it resulted in the postponement of the referendum plans to lift one or more of the four opt-outs. Furthermore, the positive attitude of the Danes to abolish the opt-outs seemed to have decreased and by the time of writing the report, the only opt-out that the Danes were in favour of abolishing was the defence policy opt-out. The Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was thought to be one of the favourite candidates for the position as President of the European Council, but the Irish |
| No might change the picture since his chances are believed to be related to his ability to remove the Danish opt-outs. In the remaining member states different implications of the Irish No for the future of Europe are discussed such as the slowdown of the process of enlargement, a two-speed EU and the communication gap between political elites and citizens. Despite these negative implications, the strong consensus to continue ratification irrespectively of the Irish No marks a significant difference to the ratification crisis of 2005. |
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