In English

As part of the EU's Period of Reflection the Danish Parliament, the Folketing, held a public hearing on Europe and the EU on April 29th-30th 2006. The official name of the hearing is Europahøring 2006 and it was arranged in co-operation between the Folketing and the national public service broadcaster TV2.

Europahøring 2006 took place at The University of Southern Denmark in Odense on April 29th-30th.

The purpose of the hearing was to:

Engage the public more extensively in the debate on the EU's official "period of reflection”.

Provide impulses for the political process in Denmark and the EU through the expression of opinions that have broader currency among the public than those provided by normal opinion polls and other instances.

Demonstrate willingness to enter into a dialogue with voters on the principal lines of Danish European policy.

During one weekend 400 Danish citizens debated with each other and politicians and experts. The Goverment will communicate the conclusions of the hearing to the EU summit in June 2006. Here the European leaders will decide what to do following the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty at the referenda in France and the Netherlands last year.

Europahøring 2006 had three main topics:

Which of the cross-border problems that Europe is faced with should be given special emphasis, and which role should the EU play in these.
What are the most important problems related to EU cooperation and how can they be solved?
Where are the geographical boundaries of the EU?

A major event
The hearing has been one of the major political events in spring 2006 with the participation of leading Danish politicians, such as the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, The Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Per Stig Møller and the leaders of the opposition parties.

The hearing was also a major media event. The Danish national public service broadcaster TV2 broadcasted live television from the hearing which helped to spread the debate among the public.