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Denmark referendum rejects EU justice, home affairs opt-in

Xinhua, December 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Danish voters rejected a government proposal to replace the nation's current opt-out of the EU's justice and home affairs rules with an opt-in model in a referendum on Thursday.

With all votes counted, 53.1 percent Danish voters said "no" to the proposal while 46.9 percent are in favor.

"I have full respect for the Dane's decision," Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said of the outcome at a press conference on Thursday night.

With a "no", Denmark risks being excluded from the EU's law enforcement agency, Europol, as the organization is set to become in 2016 a supranational agency controlled by EU justice and home affairs ministers in line with the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.

As such, Rasmussen said he will on Monday start negotiations with all the parliamentary parties for getting a parallel agreement on Europol in place.

"It is my experience that both 'yes' and 'no' parties have agreed that it will be a disaster for Denmark and the Danish police if we slip out of Europol," said the prime minister. "It is an obvious conclusion that one should try to negotiate a solution forward so that Denmark can remain in Europol." Endit