Morten Rasmussen :
The Nightmare of Ivar Nørgaard

The Danish Social Democratic Party has not always been as supportive of a European Economic and Monetary Union as it is today. When Denmark negotiated membership conditions with the European Community from 1970 to 1972, the Social Democratic Party, albeit supporting Danish EC-membership, was apprehensive about the consequences of the EC's plans for an Economic and Monetary Union B then epitomised in the Werner-report. In this article the social democratic policy on Economic and Monetary Union from 1970 to 1972 is analysed. It is argued that the party leadership's main purpose behind the rather critical campaign against parts of the Economic and Monetary Union was to appease the strong anti-EC opposition within the party and in the Danish population. The critical attitude to Economic and Monetary Union was a central part of a wider social democratic effort to position the party as the defender of the particular Danish welfare model and national sovereignty. The appeasement strategy was a clear success in so far as the Social Democratic Party did not split and a majority of the Danish population accepted EC-membership at the referendum in 1972. There was one drawback, however. It strengthened the perception that membership was all about trade and tariffs. This perception came back with a vengeance as integration during the 1980s and 90s increasingly came to embrace social and political aspects as well. As the article argues some of the roots of the present day Danish EU-dilemma may be traced back to the referendum campaign of 1972.