Why Ireland and Denmark won’t leave the EU

By Nick Alipour | @realNickAlipour

The victory of EU bogeyman Geert Wilders and his far-right PVV party in the Dutch elections last week has prompted a proliferation of think-pieces floating various further EU exit scenarios – from ‘Nexit’ to ‘Swexit’.

In these moments, the ghost of Brexit looms large. However, there is a lesson to be learned from Ireland and Denmark, which joined the EU in 1973 alongside the United Kingdom, and where popular support for the EU appears to be enduring.

The share of people from the three countries who told Eurobarometer that their country’s EU membership was a good thing started to diverge steeply in the late 1990s, with the Danes becoming more Europhile and the British going off in the opposite direction. 

The contrasting development has been striking: When the Eurobarometer asked Europeans how optimistic they were about the future of the EU earlier this year, Ireland and Denmark took the top places, with 80% of each country’s population thinking the bloc’s future was bright.

Duly, the Berlin-based embassies of both countries decided to commemorate 50 years of EU membership with a celebratory football match against FC Bundestag, a team of German MPs, this week.

Asked for an explanation for their countries’ Europhilia, both ambassadors tell a rather utilitarian story.

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EU countries and the European Parliament said on Wednesday they have reached a preliminary agreement on curbing industrial emissions, including those from intensive poultry and pig farms and from ore mines.

The Spanish presidency of the EU Council shared a revised mandate to negotiate with the European Parliament on the thorny issue of regulating foundation models under the upcoming AI law.

France’s draft national energy and climate plan (NECP), recently handed into the European Commission, fails to mention a renewable energy objective for 2030, referring instead to a “decarbonised” energy target incorporating nuclear power, contradicting the EU’s renewable energy directive.

European Commission defence experts are asking EU countries and the arms industry how it can make the latter more flexible and less dependent on third countries with ideas on mapping production capacity, setting up a one-stop shop for all, and securing budgets, according to internal documents seen by Euractiv.

Innovation is key to the digitalisation of our society. Open global technology standards, based on standard-essential patents (SEPs), are the foundation upon which companies continue to innovate and create new products and services. Without SEPs, for example, it would not be possible to make mobile phone calls, stream videos, provide up-to-date traffic information to connected cars or access remote healthcare and learning.

Advanced spyware, likely Pegasus, has been used against Serbian civil society just weeks before snap parliamentary elections, human rights organisation Amnesty International confirmed on Tuesday.

Both experts and patient associations in Spain praise the quality of treatments provided by the public health system but demand greater attention and resources put towards the difficulties posed by the multi-sectoral management required after discharge.

The European Commission tabled an update to passenger rights rules on Wednesday in a bid to prevent a repeat of the confusion and frustration experienced by passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic travel disruption.

Access to quick and accurate diagnosis and affordable drugs in Spain varies across the regions and depending on patients’ economic status.

EU countries need to see biomarker testing – an innovative form of cancer diagnostics – as an investment and address the current lack of knowledge about its benefits, the head of Cancer Patients Europe told Euractiv.

Don’t miss this week’s Green Brief: Hydrogen under the spotlight, CCS back in fashion; and the Health Brief: A new chair for the public health committee.

Look out for…

• Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski participates in second EU-Turkey high-level dialogue on agriculture, including meeting with Agriculture Minister İbrahim Yumakli, in Brussels Thursday.
• Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council meets in Brussels Thursday.
• General Affairs Council meets in Brussels Thursday.
• Commission President Ursula von der Leyen participates in COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in United Arab Emirates Friday-Saturday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Nathalie Weatherald]