Tag: Denmark

EU member states have agreed to support sanctions against the Faroe Islands, including a possible import ban or closing its ports to its boats, to protest the islands' decision to triple the limit on herring fishing.

Denmark is celebrating 40 years as an EU member in 2013. Despite opting out of four main policy areas, the small Scandinavian nation wants to be at the core of the EU, Danish Minister for European Affairs Nicolai Wammen tells EurActiv.

The Danes are set to get a yearly rebate of 1 billion Danish crowns (€134 million), the country's first, according to the newest EU budget proposal by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.  

A majority in the Danish parliament signalled their readiness to allow extraction and exports of uranium from Greenland, marking a historical shift in Danish foreign policy after 30 years of opposition to nuclear power.

Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has said she will block talks on the 2014-2020 EU budget unless she is offered a rebate of 1 billion Danish crowns (€134 million).

Only one-fifth of Danes want increased economic integration with Europe, according to the latest polls. A referendum on potential euro membership is not in sight, say members of the government.

Danish Environment Minister Ida Auken has decided to ban four industrial chemicals linked to disrupting the human endocrine system, pushing Denmark ahead of the European Union which has already started a process of phasing out phthalates.

Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark in 1973 but left in 1985 due to quarrels over commercial fishing regulations. With Greenland facing new export potential and possible independence from Denmark, the EU must play a pragmatic and constructive role to secure the island’s development, Damien Degeorges says in an interview with EurActiv.

Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt might have to call an election later this year as her centre-left government has lost support from the Red-Green Alliance, whose votes are needed to keep her in power.

SPECIAL REPORT / One of the questions that world leaders will discuss while gathering at the UN summit in Rio this week is whether future national development should be measured in terms other than the economic.

From an industry perspective, it is difficult to understand the widespread reluctance in Europe to adopt the Energy Efficiency Directive that can generate thousands of jobs and save private households millions of euros, says Lars Clausen.

The Energy Efficiency Directive is likely to become reality under the Danish EU Presidency, which ends on 1 July, according to a European Commission official who has drafted the bill. The announcement came amid warnings from green campaigners, who say the amended text is too weak.

Danish Environment Minister Ida Auken has an ambitious agenda for her country's EU presidency, including global leadership on sustainable development. The Socialist politician says she sees no conflict between environmental regulation and spurring economic growth in Europe.

With the euro debt crisis, Denmark's presidency of the EU council coincides with one of the most difficult moments in the Union's history. As Denmark is not member of the euro zone, it is prepared to take a back seat in the troubleshooting effort, but would strive to keep the countries from both sides united - "a bridge over troubled water" as European Affairs Minister Nicolai Wammen described it.

Taking lessons from Denmark’s temporary re-imposition of border checks, the EU would do well to intensify its efforts to streamline border practices towards a more coherent EU-wide approach, argues Peter Hobbing of the Centre for European Policy Studies.

The centre-left coalition led by the Social Democratic party won a closely contested election in Denmark, which will now be led by the first-ever female premier.

Berlin yesterday (10 August) criticised Danish plans to build new installations on its border with Germany, saying its northern neighbour should wait for European Union clearance before starting any construction.

Denmark reinforced its borders yesterday (4 July) by stationing additional customs officers at frontier crossings in a bid to halt illegal goods that has angered Germany and stirred debate about free travel in Europe.

Denmark's centre-right government yesterday (11 May) agreed to introduce border controls at its ports and airports, as well as along its only land border with Germany and its bridge to Sweden. The European Commission asked for additional information and said it would not accept any roll-back of the Schengen treaty.

Countries negotiating to deliver an international climate deal are back in business and both Denmark and Mexico, the outgoing and incoming chairs of the UN-led talks, are developing a "GPS system" to successfully reach their destination on time by December, Danish Energy and Climate Change Minister Lykke Friis told EurActiv in an interview.

"We have no alternative. We must handle climate change and we must do it right now. Copenhagen is the deadline. Time is up," writes former Danish Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard, the EU's commissioner-designate for climate action, in an exclusive op-ed for EurActiv.

After the last round of climate talks before the UN conference in Copenhagen ended with a sense of pessimism and impending defeat, the Danish ambassador to the EU, Poul Skytte Christoffersen, warns against the danger of postponing a deal until next year.

With only 70 or so days to go before leaders meet to agree on a post-Kyoto climate deal in Copenhagen, there is a need to speed up negotiations and "make political choices," Danish Climate Change and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard told EurActiv in an interview.

Europe's Nordic states yesterday (26 February) debated in Iceland whether to keep their own currencies or seek shelter from the global crisis in the euro zone.