Brexit: Greenland and Faroes point way to UK solution
Danish link with old territories shows how UK could accommodate Scotland and North
The town of Ilulissat in Greenland: the Faroes secured an opt-out from what was then the EEC when Denmark joined in 1973 and Greenland followed by leaving in 1985. Photograph: Uriel Sinai/Getty
There is a little-discussed Danish quirk of the European Union, which goes like this: the Kingdom of Denmark is a member of the EU. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are self-governing countries within the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are not members of the EU.
This is largely a matter of fish. Both countries have historically depended heavily on the fisheries, and the prospect of uncontrolled Spanish, Portuguese or (insert Atlantic-coastal EU country here) trawlers off their coasts was too much to bear. Ireland, of course, knows a thing or two about that. Thus the Faroes secured an opt-out from what was then the EEC when Denmark joined in 1973. Greenland followed by leaving in 1985.