This was expressed by Pascal Lamy, chef de cabinet for Jacques Delors, the president of the European Commission, who after the Danish referendum remarked that, "Europe was built in a Saint-Simonian [i.e., technocratic] way from the beginning, this was Monnet's approach: The people weren't ready to agree to integration, so you had to get on without telling them too much about what was happening.

The opt-outs are outlined in the Edinburgh Agreement and concern the EMU, the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and the citizenship of the European Union.

The EMU opt-out meant Denmark was not obliged to participate in the third phase of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, i.e. to replace the Danish krone with the euro.

Hence it does not take part in decisions, does not act in that area and does not contribute troops to missions conducted under the auspices of the European Union.

[6] The June Movement, a Danish eurosceptic party and political organization was founded immediately after the referendum, and takes its name from the event.