Poul Schlueter, longtime Danish prime minister, dies at 92

Poul Schlueter, Denmark’s prime minister for over a decade who negotiated exemptions for his country to a key European Union treaty after Danes rejected the initial text in a referendum, has died

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Poul Schlueter, Denmark's prime minister for over a decade who negotiated exemptions for his country to a key European Union treaty after Danes rejected the initial text in a referendum, has died. He was 92. Schlueter, who was prime minister from 1982-1993, died Thursday surrounded by his family, the leader of the party that he once headed said Friday in a statement. “The family has lost a dear member, and our country has lost one of the most important people of our time,” Soeren Pape Poulsen, who heads the opposition Conservatives, said in a statement. In 1992, Denmark stalled the EU’s move toward a closer cooperation when Danes rejected the Maastricht treaty.