No Referendum in Denmark

With the - unsurprising - news in that Denmark will not hold a referendum on the reform treaty, it looks inceasingly certain that Ireland will be the only country to do so.

Some details from the Danish decision:

According to the constitution, a referendum must take place if a legal review establishes that sovereignty is transferred from Denmark to the EU. However, Rasmussen says a Ministry of Justice review of the final treaty text, agreed by EU leaders last October, has found that the document does not transfer sovereignty from Denmark and that the government is therefore not obliged to call a public consultation.

This relates to an issue I've blogged about before: the reform treaty really is different from the 'Constitution' in a number of important ways. When UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes that exact claim to evade the responsibility of holding a referendum, he has a point.

This statement by Rasmussen is a bit to cheeky, though:

Rasmussen said he did not know whether his decision would influence the political decision-making process in other countries. "Each country has a sovereign right to make its decision based on constitutional requirements, traditions and customs. We have made our decision based on Danes' traditions and customs," he said.

I'm sure pressure from Germany and meetings with Brown on the issue had nothing whatsoever to do with Rasmussen's decision.

Denmark will, however, hold a referendum on another EU-related topic, namely to overturn the opt-outs it negotiated 15 years ago on the Treaty of Maastricht, including the opt-out on the Euro. So not all eyes will be on Ireland.