Edinburgh Agreement (1992)

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The Edinburgh Agreement or Edinburgh Decision is a December 1992 agreement reached at a European Council meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, that granted Denmark four exceptions to the Maastricht Treaty so that it could be ratified by Denmark. This was necessary because, without all member states of the European Union ratifying it, it could not come into effect. Denmark had first rejected the Maastricht treaty, but with the addition of the Edinburgh Agreement, ratified the treaty in a 1993 referendum. The member states that had already ratified the Maastricht Treaty did not have to do so again.

Denmark obtained four opt-outs from the Maastricht Treaty following the treaty's initial rejection in a 1992 referendum. The opt-outs are outlined in the Edinburgh Agreement and concern the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and the citizenship of the European Union. With these opt-outs the Danish people accepted the treaty in a second referendum held in 1993. On 1 June 2022, Denmark abolished its opt-out from the CSDP.

The EMU opt-out means Denmark is not obliged to participate in the third phase of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, i.e. to replace the Danish krone with the euro. The abolition of the euro opt-out was put to a referendum in 2000 and was rejected. The opt-out from the CSDP, also known as the "defence opt-out", originally meant Denmark would not be obliged to join the Western European Union (which originally handled the defence tasks of the EU). The abolition of the defence opt-out was put to a referendum on 1 June 2022, where Denmark voted to abolish it. Until 1 June 2022, the defence opt-out meant that Denmark did not participate in the European Union's foreign policy where defence is concerned. Denmark did not take part in decisions nor act in that area. It did not contribute troops to missions conducted under the auspices of the European Union, and did not participate in the European Defence Agency. The JHA opt-out exempts Denmark from certain areas of home affairs. Significant parts of these areas were transferred from the third European Union pillar to the first under the Amsterdam Treaty; Denmark's opt-outs from these areas were kept valid through additional protocols, so they now have an opt-out from the Area of freedom, security and justice. Acts made under those powers are not binding on Denmark except for those relating to Schengen, which are instead conducted on an intergovernmental basis with Denmark. Under the Treaty of Lisbon, Denmark can change its JHA opt-out from a complete opt-out to the case-by-case opt-in version applying to Ireland whenever it wishes.^[1] The citizenship opt-out stated that European citizenship did not replace national citizenship; this opt-out was rendered meaningless when the Amsterdam Treaty adopted the same wording for all members.

The four exceptions granted to Denmark are as follows: