European defence cooperation and Denmark. The Danish opt-out on defence

The Danish defence opt-out will hamper the protection of Danish interests if, in the future, there is dynamic integration, working towards increased European strategic autonomy. Conversely, the defence opt-out will be less important if the EU’s defence cooperation stagnates or is rolled back, for example due to internal disagreement among the member states.

These were the main findings in the external DIIS report from 2019 that has now been translated to English. The report was commissioned by the Danish government in November 2018 and focuses on the development in the EU in the field of security and defence policy cooperation and its significance for Denmark. Picking up from the last DIIS report (2008), the new report focuses in particular on the period following the launch of the EU’s global strategy in the summer of2016. The analysis is based on interviews with experts, officials and representatives from the EU, NATO, Denmark and other Member States, as well as case files in the archive of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, official documents, and existing research.

The report is compiled by a team of independent researchers:

• Cecilie Felicia Stockholm Banke, Research Coordinator and Senior Researcher at DIIS
• Graham Butler, Associate Professor at Aarhus University
• Esther Ranum Jørgensen,Student Assistant at DIIS
• Emilie Sort Mikkelsen, Student Assistant at DIIS
• Hans Mouritzen, Senior Researcher at DIIS
• Christine Nissen, Researcher at DIIS
• Mikkel Runge Olesen, Senior Researcher at DIIS
• Rasmus Brun Pedersen, Associate Professor at Aarhus University
• Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen, Associate Professor at The Royal Danish Defence College
• Jacob Linnet Schmidt, Research Assistant at DIIS

In accordance with DIIS’ provisions, Director Kristian Fischer is responsible for the report’s presentation.