Denmark within the European Union
“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces”
William Shakespeare
“The Merchant of Venice”
The European Union is an organization dedicated to the idea of European integration. It ultimate goal is to form a United States of Europe. Given the history of violence and mistrust among European countries it is not difficult to understand why many member nations are reluctant to relinquish national sovereignty on many levels. Each member nation tries to assert its own agenda into the overall picture of the EU and each nation has its own history of relations within the organization.
The financial assistance Denmark received from the Marshall Plan helped ease the country’s currency difficulties and provided vital funds for the import of raw materials and machinery necessary for industrialization (Neal, 124). Membership of the OEEC (now OECD) involved Denmark in the internationalisation of the economy through the dismantling of trade and currency restrictions. Denmark did not participate in the creation of the EEC through the Treaty of Rome, at this point Denmark was in the middle of changing many of its internal structures such as welfare, healthcare, and education. The country did take part, however, in negations concerning the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) which was set up in 1960. When Britain applied for membership into the EEC in 1961, Denmark immediately followed suit but dropped its application after Britain was rejected. Negotiations for a Nordic Economic Union (NORDEK) were underway when in 1969 Denmark was invited to apply for membership in the EC. The Danish government held an intense bind...
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Works Cited
Fallesen, Leif Beck. “Cliffhanger in Copenhagen”. 10/24/01. Available at:
http://www.eurunion.org/magizine/0006/denmark.html
Holm, Hans-Henrik. “Denmark-Official Denmark-International Relation”. 10/24/01. Available at:
http://www.um.dk/english/danmark/danmarksbog/kap1/1-15.asp.
Neal, Larry and Barbezat, Daniel. The Economics of the European Union and the Economies of Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Rerup, Lorenz and Christiansen, Neils Finn. “Denmark-History-Denmark in the International Community 1945-72”. 10/24/01. Available at:
http://www.um.dk/english/danmark/danmarksbog/kap6/6-16.asp.
Rerup, Lorenz and Christiansen, Neils Finn. “Denmark-History-Political Upheaval, Economic Crisis, and Renewed Growth, 1973-98”. 10/24/01. Available at:
http://www.um.dk/english/danmark/danmarksbog/kap6/6-18.asp.
The European Union has been helped economically ever since World War II. Right after World War II’s end, Europe was struggling to hold on. The countries of the modern-day European Union thought it would be a good idea to come together and help each others struggling economy. To this day, this decision has had a very positive outcome on the EU’s economy. As shown in Diagram 1, the European Union combined together has the world’s highest GDP at 18.3 Trillion USD as compared to the United States’ 17.4 Trillion USD GDP and China’s 10.4 Trillion USD GDP. The idea
They are all known as the Nordic Welfare States. Especially gender equality and the well-being of the individual are seen as the main characteristics from a foreign perspective. But every Welfare State of the different nations does not fit the perfect social democratic model and has a unique policy. From a Swedish domestic view it all started to increase the living standard of the Swedish people and the number of children to secure the surviving of the state. Using the Danish Welfare State to compare to Nordic countries both started from different points. While Denmark had more agriculture, Sweden had a stronger industry. Nevertheless both countries’ welfare history can be divided into similar periods as described for Sweden before. The second and third period share the most similarities: increasing state intervention, greater social democratic influence, universal social benefits based on citizen rights with a strong public sector and a focus to solve family and gender disadvantages. The oil crisis in the 1970 changed the political landscape differently than in Sweden. The universal support was widely criticized and the power of the market grew again. The focus shifted from the individual well-being towards the duties of the individual receiving state benefits. Another difference was the early EU-membership of Denmark. The special Danish labor market can be described
Working unitedly is a basic thing to do if you have one to 10 people, but with almost a whole country working as a union is a significant and a spontaneous deal. Which Union am I talking about? The European Union, of course! This Union holds virtually all of the European Countries with 28 countries. Unfortunately, some countries never did join because of losing sovereignty.
In conclusion, the European Union has “merged” the countries of Europe. It has developed a common currency called the Euro’s, and a Parliament located in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Also, ALL of the countries of the Union are affected when one country is affected. This is important because the continent of Europe had become very weak after the wars and they needed to strengthen, and the European Union keeps the countries of Europe strong and economically fit.
However, there are many countries that have not yet adopted the Euro and have remained incredulous about it. Two countries that fit into this example are the UK and Denmark. The UK’s reluctances to adopt the Euro has begun with its opt-out of the Maastricht Treaty that was signed in 1992 by all members of the European Community and has led to the creation of euro. Within the Conservative Party John Major, who was at that time the Prime Minister of Great Britain, was considered “pro-Euro”, as he pledged to keep Britain “at the very heart of Europe”. However, as his government was endorsing the Treaty, he was faced with strong antagonism in the House of Commons that consisted mostly of the so-called Maastricht Rebels who were members of his own Conservative Party rather than the Labour opposition. The endorsement was voted down and Major’s authority in Parliamen...
Denmark is a small high-income country with a high population density, is governed by a constitutional monarchy, has a central parliament and is administratively divided into regions, municipalities and has 2 dependencies (Greenland and the Faroe Islands) (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). It has a national health service (funded by general taxation) and a decentralized healthcare system in which the individual regions run most services and the municipalities are responsible for some public health services (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). However, a process of (re) centralization (under the structural reform of 2007) has been taking place, which has lowered the number of regions from 14 to 5 and the municipalities from 275 to 98 (Olejaz, Nielsen, Rudkjøbing, Okkels, Krasnik & Hernández-Quevedo, 2012; Schäfer et al., 2010). The hospital structure is also undergoing reform, moving towards fewer, bigger and more specialized hospitals (Olejaz, Nielsen, Rudkjøbing, Okkels, Krasnik & Hernández-Quevedo, 2012). Greenland and the Faroe Islands are independent in health matters but follow the Danish Legislation (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). The National Board of Health (NBH) (based in Copenhagen) is responsible for the legislation concerning dentistry in Denmark (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009; Schäfer et al., 2010).
Peterson, J. and Shackleton, M. 2002. The institutions of the European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The EU is a union of sovereign European states who share sovereignty based on treaty. The union also possesses competences in policy sectors with exclusive jurisdiction in the area of Economic and Monetary Union while others are shared with Member States (MS), the other powers belong to MS as derived from the conferral of powers art 5(2) TEU, 2(1) TFEU art.3 & 4 TFEU additionally other powers have been offered by the decisions of the European Court for direct effect on citizens
Beyond these global trends, there are a number of trends unique to Denmark that have resulted to an increase in inequality. The decades leading up to the Great Divergence in Denmark have a significant relationship with how the economy would behave in the years after. During World War I, Denmark experienced a marked increase and abrupt decline in inequality due to a lack of economic preparedness for a drawn-out conflict resulting in a volatile market (Atkinson & Søgaard, 2016, pp. 283). Danish preparedness for World War II allowed for less of a major impact to the economy and a further decrease in inequality throughout the Great Compression. A major part of their fiscal policy after the war was the trend of rising marginal tax rates (Atkinson
Cerutti, F and Lucarelli, S: The Search for a European Identity: Values, Policies and Legitmacy of the European Union, (2008) Routledge
Eurozone crisis has had huge impacts not only on the economy of the UE but also on the other countries who have economic and financial relations with the members of the union. The reason why we have decided to examine the Eurozone crisis in detail is to have a better understanding of the mechanisms behind this extremely important and complex problem and also to make accurate inferences about the solution alternatives. In our pape...
Senior, Nello Susan. "Chapters:4,15." The European Union: Economics, Policies and History. London: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in 2004 and 2007 has been termed as the largest single expansion of the EU with a total of 12 new member states – bringing the number of members to 27 – and more than 77 million citizens joining the Commission (Murphy 2006, Neueder 2003, Ross 2011). A majority of the new member states in this enlargement are from the eastern part of the continent and were countries that had just emerged from communist economies (EC 2009, Ross 2011), although overall, the enlargement also saw new member states from very different economic, social and political compared to that of the old member states (EC 2009, Ross 2011). This enlargement was also a historical significance in European history, for it saw the reunification of Europe since the Cold War in a world of increasing globalization (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). For that, overall, this enlargement is considered by many to have been a great success for the EU and its citizens but it is not without its problems and challenges (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). This essay will thus examine the impact of the 2004/2007 enlargements from two perspectives: firstly, the impact of the enlargements on the EU as a whole, and thereafter, how the enlargements have affected the new member states that were acceded during the 2004/2007 periods. Included in the essay will be the extent of their integration into the EU and how being a part of the Commission has contributed to their development as nation states. Following that, this essay will then evaluate the overall success of the enlargement process and whether the EU or the new member states have both benefited from the accessions or whether the enlargement has only proven advantageous to one th...
There are several key components of the European history that have led to the creation of the individual nations within the EU and the larger supranational Institution we call the European Union. As Curtis and Linser (2004) “The European Union is the most important development in European history since World War Two” (Curtis & Linser, 2004, p.4). And I tend to agree that this story line is the most important since it was the starting’s to one of the largest supranational organizations that shaped modern Europe and continues to shape it today. To start the European Union could not have been created without the nations that are part of this supranational organization. Many of the nations that make up the EU have been either long-term super powers, France, United Kingdom or Germany, but also areas plagued with conflict. The conflict is however the more important of the two. The conflict between Germany and the rest of Europe in WW2 was the sparks that created...
Therborn, Göran: European Modernity and Beyond: The Trajectory of European Societies, 1945 - 2000, London (Sage) 1995.