Greenland votes to leave the European Community – archive, February 1982

The Guardian

05-02-2025

23 February 1982
Godthaab: Greenland's mainly Inuit (Eskimo) people are expected today to vote to leave the EEC, thereby depriving the Community of roughly half its total area. Some 32,500 Greenlanders are eligible to vote in a consultative referendum on whether the world's largest island should continue membership of the Community.
EEC Commission officials in Brussels have said a 'no' vote and subsequent withdrawal could set a dangerous precedent with both the new Greek Socialist government and the British Labour party which are talking of leaving the EEC.
Greenland entered the community with Denmark in 1973 despite the fact that 71% of its voters opposed membership in the Danish referendum on the EEC the previous year. A Greenland referendum in 1979, then approved home rule by 70% to 26% of the voters, permitting Greenlanders to decide for themselves whether they wished to stay in the EEC. Greenland remained part of the Kingdom of Denmark and under the Danish constitution, but power was devolved to a locally elected parliament, the Landsting.
From John Palmer, European editor in Brussels
25 February 1982
There were fears in Brussels yesterday that the vote in favour of withdrawal from the Common Market in the Greenland referendum would encourage anti-Marketeers in Britain and Greece. The EEC Commission expressed its 'regret' at the result but undertook to negotiate a new relationship with Greenland – a process which may take until 1984 to complete.
The referendum, in which 52% were against staying in and 46% were for remaining in the Community, was advisory. But the Siumut party, which has the majority in the local parliament, has repeatedly stated that it would pull out if the majority of Greenlanders wanted it. Despite the campaign waged by the Danish Government and the EEC Commission in favour of a vote for staying in the EEC, there was no great surprise at the narrow victory of those advocating withdrawal. Although the Ten will, at a stroke, lose about half the total land mass of the European Community, the decision only affects about 50,000 people of a total EEC population of 200 million.
While considerable efforts were being made in Brussels yesterday to play down the decision, it was seen as setting a precedent in the British and Greek cases. However, it was pointed out that Greenland was a unique case in that it was better understood as part of a belated de-colonisation process by Denmark than as an attempt by an independent member state to seek a new relationship with the Ten.
The first step in Greenland's disengagement from the EEC will be the formal communication of the decision to the prime minister, Mr Anker Joergensen, by the leader of the administration, Mr Jonathon Motzfeldt. It will then be for the Danish government, which remains responsible for Greenland's foreign and defence policies, to negotiate a new status for Greenland.
Greenland's Siumut party wants the territory to be given the same privileged relationship with the EEC as that of France's metropolitan overseas territories. Although by leaving the EEC, Greenland will have taken itself out of the customs union the local administration is anxious to be able to sell fish to the EEC market free of tariffs.
While anxious not to shut the door on a close link between the EEC and Greenland, the commission also does not want to encourage anti-Marketeers in Britain and Greece to think that the Greenland referendum is an easy option for them.
From Derek Brown in Brussels
18 December 1984
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The European Community has invented the opposite of blackballing, the process used by club members to veto membership applications by undesirables. It has whiteballed Greenland into staying in the Community, against the will of its 52,000 mostly [Inuit] inhabitants
Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, wanted to leave on 31 December, largely because the regional government wants full control of fish stocks, the island's only significant resource. Earlier this year the 10 member states agreed terms under which the Greenlanders conceded valuable fishing rights in exchange for cash compensation.
The deal, making Greenland the first territory to secede from the EEC, was, to take effect on 1 January 1985. But it had to be ratified by the 10 member states' parliaments. At least five have failed to do so.
The whiteballing of Greenland is not the result of warm affection for the frozen wastes. The French Senate objected to certain features of the fish deal, which could affect catches in national waters surrounding, the colonial islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, south of Greenland.
Other parliaments – in Ireland, Germany, and Italy – seem more simply to have overlooked the matter. Irish legislators started their Christmas holidays last week so Greenland is condemned to spend at least the first part of 1985 in the EEC. There was doubt last night whether the Dutch parliament had completed the ratification process. Belgium has refused to do so until the legal status of the deal is made clear.
Foreign ministers of the Community, whose meeting here yesterday was largely concerned with opening the EEC door to Spain and Portugal, were unable to find the key to the exit for Greenland. They are still hoping, however, that the island can be treated as a non-member, even though she will remain in the club. Continue reading
2 February 1985
Greenland yesterday left the EEC to become the first country to quit the bloc since the founding Treaty of Rome came into operation in January 1958. The departure, originally set for 1 January, was held up by a dispute over access to dwindling stocks of fish.