The politics of differentiated integration : what do governments want? country report - Denmark

This report reviews the salience of differentiated integration (DI) in Denmark as well as the shifting positions of Danish governments on DI models and mechanisms. DI was generally a low-salience issue at the level of conceptual models in Denmark in 2004-2020, which is reflected in the government positions, as Danish governments did not take clear public stance on conceptual DI in either 2008, 2012 or 2017-2020. This was the case despite that the EU in general was as salient as economic and social/welfare issues in the period. By contrast, DI mechanisms were highly salient in the Danish debate, driven by discussions on the Danish opt-outs. Danish governments, it seems, would rather engage in public discussions on concrete policies and mechanisms than at the abstract conceptual level when it comes to DI. In 2008 the government wanted to abolish the opt-outs on JHA, the euro and defence. In 2012, it wanted to abolish the opt-out on defence and replace the JHA opt-out with an opt-in model. Neither succeeded. In 2017-2020, after the JHA opt-out referendum in 2015, this position had somewhat changed, supposedly making governments less eager to argue for abolishing the opt-outs. However, the Social Democratic government in 2019-2020 was the only government analysed that did not position itself clearly negatively towards the Danish opt-outs and, as a consequence, DI mechanisms, indicating a policy shift since previous periods.This working paper is part of the InDivEU project which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 822304