This is a list of referendums related to the European Union, or referendums related to the
treaty ratification. Other EU-related referendums have been held on the adoption of the euro
and on participation in other EU-related policies.
The United Kingdom is the only country as an EU member state to have held referendums on continued membership of the European Union and its antecedent organisation, the European Communities. In the first referendum in 1975, continued membership of what was then the European Communities (which included the European Economic Community, often referred to as the Common Market in the UK)[nb 1] was approved by 67.2% of voters, while in its second referendum in 2016 voters voted by 51.9% to leave the European Union, effectively reversing the result of the first referendum.[nb 2]
Before allowing the four new candidate member states to join the European Communities, founding member France held a referendum that approved this. Following the French approval, three of the four candidate states (Ireland, Denmark and Norway) likewise held referendums on the issue of joining the European Communities. The United Kingdom did not hold a referendum before joining.
The Conservative government of Edward Heath did not hold a referendum before the United Kingdom joined the European Communities in 1973. The Labour Party's manifesto for the 1974 general election included a pledge for an in-out referendum after a renegotiation of its membership. Accordingly, after Labour won under Harold Wilson, the referendum was held on whether to remain in the Communities after a renegotiation of its membership. The result was in favour of remaining.
After the defeat of the treaty in the first referendum, Denmark negotiated and received four opt-outs from portions of the treaty: Economic and Monetary Union, Union Citizenship, Justice and Home Affairs, and Common Defence. The second referendum approved the treaty amended with the opt-outs.
The Åland Islands, a semi-autonomous dependency of Finland, also voted on their accession to the European Union. The favourable vote meant that EU law would apply also to the Åland Islands.
In the so-called "Nice II referendum" in 2002, statements on Ireland not having to join a common defence policy and affirming the right to decide on enhanced cooperation in the national parliament were stressed in a special document, resulting in a favourable vote.
Since the results were in favourable in all cases, all ten candidate countries were admitted as members of the EU, acceding on 1 May 2004.
Euro
Denmark and the United Kingdom received opt-outs from the Maastricht Treaty and do not have to join the euro unless they choose to do so; Sweden has not received an opt-out, yet deliberately does not live up to the requirements for joining. Two referendums have been held on the issue, both of which rejected accession.
After the first vote by Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty, the European Council and the Irish Government released separate documents, referred to as the "Irish Guarantees", that stated the other member countries would not use the possibility in the Treaty to diminish the number of permanent commissioners in favour of a rotating system with fewer commissioners, and not threaten Ireland's military neutrality and rules on abortion.[1][2] With these assurances, the Irish approved the unchanged Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum.
A referendum on the bailout conditions in the Greek government-debt crisis. A majority of the voters rejected the bailout conditions. However, shortly afterwards the government accepted a bailout with even harsher conditions than the ones rejected by the voters.
a new settlement for Britain in the EU" which was then followed by a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar. The result was for the UK to leave the EU and the deal was discarded.[3]
The United Kingdom formally withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020.
A referendum was held to decide whether Hungary should accept migrant quotas imposed by the EU without the National Assembly's approval or not. Most of the opposition parties called for a boycott. The turnout was too low to make the poll valid.
Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia within Moldova held a referendum in which 97.2% opposed further integration with the EU. There is concern in Gagauzia that Moldova's integration with the EU could lead to unification with EU member Romania, which is unpopular in the autonomous region.[5]
In addition, Article 88-5 of the Constitution of France requires a referendum there to ratify any future accession treaty.[6] Politicians in other existing member states have proposed referendums in their states, particularly with reference to the accession of Turkey.
There has been discussion amongst eurosceptic parties and movements across the EU on holding referendums on withdrawing from the EU, since the 2016 referendum in the UK.[7]
Notes
^Turnout was around 37%, less than the 50% threshold required to validate the results.
References
Footnotes
^The 1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum question was as follows: "Do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)?"
^The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum question was as follows: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?"