著者
吉武 信彦
出版者
慶應義塾大学法学研究会
雑誌
法学研究 (ISSN:03890538)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.68, no.4, pp.p59-88, 1995-04

はじめに一 前史 : 第一回国民投票までの経緯二 第一回国民投票後の混迷とエディンバラ合意 (一) エディンバラ合意への道 (二) エディンバラ合意の内容三 第二回国民投票をめぐるキャンペーン (一) 各政党の態度と国民投票キャンペーン (二) 世論の動向四 第二回国民投票の結果 (一) 投票結果 (二) 批准賛成の理由おわりに : EUの行方とデンマーク論説
著者
吉武 信彦
出版者
JAPAN ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
雑誌
国際政治 (ISSN:04542215)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.2001, no.128, pp.66-83,L9, 2001-10-22 (Released:2010-09-01)
参考文献数
36

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the Danish-EU relations, paying attention to domestic politics in Denmark, and to show developments of the interaction between domestic and international politics in European integration.Denmark is only a small country in the EU, but, when her successive governments coordinated their policy towards the EU with sceptical sentiments of the people, they faced many difficulties, which sometimes resulted in crises of domestic politics and of the EU itself, for example, the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992-93. This is based on the political system in Denmark, which makes it possible to give impacts to European integration, i. e., democratic control of the government's policy towards the EU by the Danish parliament, especially the European Committee (Europaudvalget), and by referendum, which has been held seven times on European integration since 1972. This democratic control helps political parties and the people to participate in the European integration process.There are two important cases in the Danish-EU relations to examine the interaction between domestic and international politics. They are the political processes of ratifying the Maastricht Treaty in 1992-93 and of joining the single currency “Euro” in 2000. The outcomes of the referendums, which were held in June 1992 and in September 2000, were “No” in both cases, but the impacts on the EU contrasted sharply. The former resulted in delaying the ratification process of the Maastricht Treaty for 10 months. In this process, domestic politics was closely connected with negotiations between the Danish government on the one hand and other member states and the EC Commission on the other hand. However, the latter did not give rise to any serious problem for the EU, because the referendum in 2000 decided whether Denmark would join the single currency or not, which had been started by most of the member states since 1999. Denmark was not eligible to exercise the veto over this project. This concept of promoting integration is called “variable geometry” or “multi-speed integration.” It is stipulated in the Amsterdam Treaty, which came into force in 1999, as “closer cooperation” and “the principle of flexibility.” The Nice Treaty, which was signed in 2001, also emphasizes this concept and it is aiming to change the weighting of votes for a “qualified majority” in the Council of Ministers, with the result that small member states like Denmark might diminish their power in the EU decision-making.The concept of “variable geometry” could lead to two groups of member states in the EU: a group which is willing to accelerate integration and the other group which is reluctant to do so because of domestic problems. In this case, domestic politics of the reluctant group cannot have a great influence on the EU decision-making. However, each member state even in the willing group has difficulties with a perception gap between the elite and the people. This might deteriorate rapidly by further integration and domestic politics of member states could change to a stumbling block to integration. Therefore, it is indispensable to pay attention to domestic politics of member states in the EU.