The Lisbon Treaty entailed a massive transfer of sovereignty from the Member States to Brussels. Even so, the EU’s leaders were able to avoid referenda in all Member States but in Ireland. It was an unwritten decision of the EU leaders to ratify the new treaty through national parliaments in order to avoid the repetition of "no" votes that rejected the European Constitution. All the attempts to stop the Lisbon Treaty’s ratification have failed.

The EUobserver reports that the Danish Supreme Court “In a surprising ruling, … allowed the plaintiffs to pursue their case against Mr Rasmussen for breach of the constitution, despite having rejected a similar case in 1996 when the Maastricht Treaty was also adopted without a referendum.”

The 28 plaintiffs have argued “that the Lisbon Treaty does indeed hand over parts of national sovereignty to Brussels and therefore a referendum should have taken place.” According to the court the 28 plaintiffs have a "requisite legal interest in having their claims verified."

As the Euobserver points out “It is unclear what would happen if they win.” According to Mr Rasmussen the parliament did not breach the Danish Constitution therefore “there should be any consequence to this…”