Mette-Astrid Jessen :
A Difficult Beginning - the Danish Social Democratic Party and Europe 1945-50

In 1973 the Danish Social Democratic Party led Denmark into the European Community and the party must in general be attributed a very substantial influence on designing Denmark=s European policy after the Second World War. However, the Social Democratic Party has never displayed much enthusiasm about European integration. As a matter of fact the Social Democrats were opposed to the first steps towards European integration taken with the Hague-conference in 1948. This position was softened during the following year when the party supported the creation of the Council of Europe albeit in its minimalist, functionalist set-up. Despite this new openness towards European cooperation, the party continuously has seen problems in accommodating national political priorities with European developments. This article traces the roots of this predicament by analysing the first steps of the early post-war period to design a Social Democratic European policy. It is demonstrated that the Social Democratic policy towards the Council of Europe was shaped within the context of domestic political priorities and the external effects of the escalating Cold War. The article also argues that the reason why Nordic cooperation during the very same period was given much stronger support was due to the fact that Nordic cooperation in contrast to European cooperation was seen to reinforce national Social Democratic strategies.