Danes cast votes in EU legal reservations referendum

A total of 1,385 polling stations opened across Denmark at 9 am local time (0800 GMT) Thursday morning as voters began to cast their ballots for the Danish referendum on the EU legal reservations.

More than 4.1 million eligible voters will decide whether or not to replace the nation's current opt-out of the EU's Justice and Home Affairs rules with an opt-in model.

Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, alongside the leaders of other pro-Europe parties, assembled at Copenhagen Central Station on Thursday morning to convince the last doubters to vote "yes."

"A 'yes' is safe. It ensures that we will stay in Europol, and that we can cooperate in the fight against crime," said Rasmussen, adding that "a no vote means drifting away from cooperation, and that creates uncertainty."

If the referendum turns out positive, Denmark's continued participation in Europol will be ensured. It will also immediately opt into 22 Justice and Home Affairs legislative acts, of which seven concern criminal law and police cooperation and 15 pertain to civil, family, and commercial law.

A Danish "no" vote, however, would mean that Denmark would not be able to influence policing and sentencing laws passed by the EU. Consequently, Denmark would be unable to participate in Europol.

The prime minister said he can understand that voters find it difficult to decide.

"It's about a general skepticism about the EU and a fear of bureaucracy, and I can well understand. But the Danes will vote yes, because it creates security," Rasmussen said.

The opposition Social Democrats party leader Mette Frederiksen also supported the move, saying that "the most important is our ability to fight crime as effectively as possible."

"We can not do it alone in Denmark as there is so much crime that is transnational," she added.

However, the "no" camp including the far-left Red-Green Alliance, the Liberal Alliance as well as the Eurosceptic Danish People's Party wants Denmark to retain its legal exemption despite its support for Danish participation in Europol.

An election day poll released on Thursday by Megafon showed that 42.9 percent of respondents would vote "no," while 39.7 percent would vote "yes."

The referendum, which was originally scheduled for the spring of 2016, was moved up so it would not interfere with the campaign for UK's EU referendum.

It is Denmark's second referendum regarding its four EU opt-outs, namely joint defence, judiciary cooperation, European citizenship, and the adoption of the euro, obtained from the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. Denmark last held a referendum on its relationship with the EU in 2000, when voters rejected a proposal to replace the Danish krone with the euro.

Polling stations will be closed at 8 pm (1900 GMT) and preliminary results are expected at midnight.

Sources: XINHUA