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EUROPEAN UNION

MAP: Which Danish areas were most EU-friendly in referendum?

On Wednesday, an overwhelming majority of Danes, almost 67 percent, voted in favour of joining the EU's common defence policy, 30 years after opting out. It was the clearest result of all nine referendums on EU issues so far. We take a look at the results across the regions.

Published: 2 June 2022 16:53 CEST
MAP: Which Danish areas were most EU-friendly in referendum?
A map showing the percentage of people in Denmarks constituencies who voted in favour of ending the EU defence opt-out.

This interactive map shows the percentage of voters in each constituency who voted in favour of joining the EU’s common defence policy. The data is taken from Denmark’s Statistic when votes had been counted but there may still be some slight adjustments to the data.

Each constituency had a majority of yes votes, in favour of scrapping the EU defence opt-out. 

In the constituencies Gentofte and Rudersdal, four out of five voters put a cross by “yes,” according to figures from KMD, which operated the referendum’s electronic result count.

The constituency with the lowest percentage of yes votes was Frederikshavn in North Jutland, followed by Esbjerg By in Southwest Jutland. Here, 41.7 and 40.9 percent voted “no”, respectively.

The Frederikshavn constituency, which covers Læsø and Frederikshavn Municipality, was the constituency where the fewest voted yes. The largest proportion of EU-critical voters were also found in the Lolland constituency, the Esbjerg City constituency and the Kalundborg constituency, which also covers Odsherred Municipality.

A total of 32,807 people voted with a blank space on Wednesday. This equates to approximately every 85th voter, corresponding to approximately 1.17 percent of all voters. In the 2015 vote, 46,100 people voted blank.

Although Wednesday’s referendum was the clearest result of all nine referendums held in Denmark on EU issues, the turn out was the second lowest of the nine votes.

65.8 percent of voters went to the polls, equating to 2.8 million people, according KMD. Only once before has voter turnout been lower, in 2014 when 55.9 percent of those eligible to vote went to the polls. In 2015, the most recent EU referendum, it was 72 percent.

The highest turnout this year was in the constituency Rudersdal, where 76.6 percent of people voted and Egedal, which had a 73.9 per cent turn out.

At the other end of the scale, Bispebjerg had the lowest turn out, with 57.1 percent, followed by Brøndby with 57.3 percent.

According to election researcher Kasper Møller Hansen from Copenhagen University, the referendum on Wednesday follows a tendency for lower turnout in Danish elections.

“I'm surprised it falls so much. But we are in a development where turnout falls not just for referendums, but also in, for example, the local elections last year”, he told newswire Ritzau.

"If the people do not want to be heard, the referendums lose their legitimacy. That is perhaps one of the most important things we need to learn from this turnout.

"There are several Danes who have turned their backs on democracy by staying at home", he said.

READ MORE: What will decision to end EU defence opt-out change for Denmark?

 
 

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WORK PERMITS

‘Tinder for jobs’: EU’s new job scheme for non-EU workers moves step closer

The creation of a common EU Talent Pool platform, in which non-EU nationals can register their profiles and find jobs across the 27 member states, has moved a step closer to reality.

Published: 14 June 2024 10:15 CEST
'Tinder for jobs': EU's new job scheme for non-EU workers moves step closer

At a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, the EU Council, which includes representatives of each of the 27 member states, agreed a joint position on the proposal, referred to as “Tinder for jobs” by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. 

The Council will now begin negotiating with the European Parliament to agree on the final legislative text on the proposal, which is part of the EU’s broader skills and talent mobility package. 

What’s the scheme?

“This will not replace anything but it will be an additional tool to make recruitment from outside the EU easier,” Johannes Kleis, a press officer at the European Council, told The Local. “It should help to overcome some barriers that employers might find if they look for staff outside the EU, and this portal will be an easier entry point for third country jobseekers.” 

In a press release announcing the agreement, the Council said it hoped to reconcile principles of fair recruitment with a secure and comprehensive migration system while also “reinforcing the position of the European Union in the global race for talent”. 

READ ALSO: The new scheme to help non-EU nationals find jobs in Europe

The EU’s Home Affairs Commission Ylva Johansson hsa described the Talent Portal as ‘Tinder for jobs’. Photo: Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP

The idea is to set up an EU-wide online platform where jobseekers from outside the EU can set up profiles detailing their skills, qualifications, work experience and which languages they speak. Employers from all participating member states will then be able to post up jobs to the platform. 

Only job vacancies involving skills or professions where member states or the EU as a whole have declared a labour shortage will be listed on the platform. 

The Talent Pool will be designed to help EU employers overcoming some of the challenges of recruiting internationally by helping ensure the “accuracy, quality and comparability” of the foreign applicants’ qualifications and skills. It will also help applicants overcome some of their current difficulties in “accessing and understanding information about recruitment processes” as well as reducing costs. 

The Talent Pool is not intended to set up a common work permit system, with anyone who gets a job through the platform still having to apply for a regular work permit in the country where they find a job. 

The Council has added several new proposals to the system put forward by the European Commission in November, setting up a withdrawal procedure through which member states can leave the Talent Pool after giving six month’s notice.

The Council also wants to empower member states to be able to decide whether individual employers can post up vacancies, whether private employment agencies can do so, or whether only state-run national employment agencies can do so.   

What happens next?

“We’re at the beginning,” Kleis said. “The European Parliament and the Council will now have to sit together to agree on the legal text, and that will happen after the summer. From the Council side, this is the first step but the legislation has yet to be agreed on. So there a lot more hoops to jump through.”  

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