Santer fields questions from Danish public

Date: 09/11/1995

By Ole Ryborg

EUROPEAN Commission President Jacques Santer will take a bold approach towards tackling public scepticism of the EU when he visits Denmark next week.

Santer, who will be in Copenhagen on Monday (13 November) visiting the European Environment Agency, has agreed to give Euro-sceptic Danes the chance to share their concerns with him at a public meeting. Some 700 people are expected to attend. Most of the participants have been specially invited, but the rest will be ordinary members of the public.

Santer will focus on subjects such as growth and employment, the environment and the future enlargement of the EU. But he could face difficult questions on a range of topics when the public is given the floor.

The recent controversy over Danish Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard's diary is one issue that will be hard to avoid. Other topics raised are likely to include the four Danish reservations on the Maastricht Treaty agreed at the Edinburgh summit in 1992, which played a crucial part in persuading Danish voters to support the treaty in a second referendum. There is mounting public concern over whether these can survive the next treaty revision.

Santer will be accompanied by Bjerregaard on his visit to the agency, where discussions will focus on its role in following up on the recent environmental conference in Sofia and its ideas for the forthcoming revision of the fifth environment programme on sustainability. Santer will also be given details of the agency's move to subscribe to the Internet, giving the public greater access to the data which it collects and compiles.