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Danish opinion polls mixed after euro ballot date

COPENHAGEN: Danes opposing membership for their country of the European Union's single currency, the euro, overtook supporters in a fresh Gallup opinion survey published by the daily Berlingske Tidende on Saturday.

Opponents scored 46 percent against 43 percent for supporters compared with 46-46 percent in the previous Gallup poll one month ago, the newspaper said.

The fresh survey was the first by any research institute to put the "No" side ahead of the "Yes" camp since October 1998.

The Gallup poll was conducted by telephone among 953 people on March 9 and 10. On the first day, speculation was rife in the media that Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen would set an autumn 2000 date for a referendum on joining the euro.

The premier, who also leads the Social Democratic Party (SDP), announced late in the evening of March 9 that the ballot would be held September 28 on condition that an April 30 extraordinary SDP congress comes out in favour of the euro.

Political analysts say the congress will be a formality.

Another March 9-10 opinion survey found support for the euro at 57 percent and opposition at 34 percent, the tabloid Ekstra-Bladet said on Saturday. Its poll was based on votes cast via the Internet. The sample, 754 people, was a representative selection of Danes with access to the Internet, the paper said.

Political analysts said on Friday that Denmark's September 28 referendum was likely to be one of the most uncertain since 1992, when Danes shocked the European Union by narrowly rejecting the Maastricht Treaty.

They approved a tailor-made version of the accord one year later having negotiated four exemptions, notably from the single currency and joint defence.

The referendum set by Rasmussen for September 28 will deal only with lifting the opt-out from membership of the third phase of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).

Greece applied on Thursday to join the euro bloc established by 11 EU member countries in January 1999. Sweden's ruling Social Democrats voted in favour of EMU at a special congress late on Friday.

The fourth euro outsider, Britain, was beginning to look increasingly isolated, analysts said earlier in the week.-Reuters