Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Tuesday he would start talks with the political opposition to secure broad support for holding a referendum on joining the single euro currency.
A staunch European Union supporter, Rasmussen said Denmark was paying hefty political and economic price for being outside the euro zone during the global financial crisis and such turmoil made it even more important to hold a referendum.
"I'm convinced that we need broad support in parliament to hold a referendum, because it's about the Danish currency and about stability and safety," he told a news conference.
"The government's line is still the same … we want the people to be able to have their say in a referendum during the current political term. That goes for the euro too," he said.
He said talks with the opposition would be held "over the coming months" but that it was still undecided when a vote could be held. Rasmussen's centre-right minority coalition's mandate runs until November 2011.
A majority in parliament support joining the euro, but Rasmussen's political ally, the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party is one of the opponents, which could present a political problem for Rasmussen.
Recent opinion polls show a majority of Danes support euro entry, but the Nordic country has had a turbulent relationship with the EU since joining its antecedent, the European Economic Community, in 1973.
Danish voters turned down the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 but approved the charter a year later after Denmark was granted several exemptions. They also rejected the euro in a 2000 vote.
The crown <EURDKK=> is pegged to the euro in a narrow band in the ERM-2 grid and has spent most of the past nine years since the regime was introduced close to its central parity.
But while the European Central Bank has cut interest rates to support the euro zone economy, the Danish central bank raised interest rates twice last month to defend the crown.
That risks crimping economic development in Denmark, which was the first EU member to enter a recession this year.
Rasmussen had intended to hold a referendum this year on ending Denmark's opt-outs from EU treaty provisions on defence, justice, and home affairs as a prelude to trying to reverse the 2000 vote against joining the euro.
However, he deferred the plan after Irish voters rejected the EU's Lisbon reform treaty in June in a vote that highlighted the unpredictability of referendums on EU issues.
Rasmussen said a referendum on the euro could be held before the Lisbon treaty had been ratified by all 27 member sates but that this was not true of Denmark's other EU exemptions.
