Non-eurozone country Denmark on Sunday ends its six-month rotating presidency of the European Union with the financial woes of the common currency still dominating the agenda. "The crisis has set the tone," Connie Hedegaard, the EU's commissioner for climate action, told the Danish news agency Ritzau.
"It takes so much effort - physical in the form of hours in the day, and mental in the shape of many difficult decisions that have to be made - that there is simply a limit to what other agendas governments can handle," Hedegaard, a former Danish cabinet member, said. While Denmark has been at the helm, discussions on the economic crisis have been dominated by Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Talks at a two-day EU summit in Brussels at the close of the Danish presidency were at times "tense," but saw Spain and Italy secure support from the eurozone to change the terms of an upcoming Spanish bank rescue and allow countries like Italy to tap into eurozone funds to reduce their borrowing costs. But Denmark had only aspired to serve as a "bridge," after taking over the presidency from Poland, also a non-euro country.
Peter Nedergaard, a political science professor at Copenhagen University, said Denmark had, to an extent, achieved that goal, mentioning as an example the fiscal compact, which is meant to introduce more budget discipline. "If you take at look at the fiscal compact, it was joined by virtually all non-euro states with the exception of the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic," Nedergaard told dpa.
Nedergaard, who has studied EU issues for 25 years, said the no-frills Danish presidency had also moved other issues, including the budget for 2014-20. Work on that area remains to be finalised by the incoming Cypriot presidency. "But no one expected the Danish presidency to close the case," Nedergaard said, noting that the French presidential elections had led to an expected halt in the work.
Other areas where Nedergaard spoke of progress was the decision to recognise Serbia as an EU candidate country and work on the two-pack - legislation giving the EU more oversight of national budgets. The Danish presidency also cited as positives the decision to lower roaming costs for mobile devices when they are taken across borders and an initiative to increase energy efficiency in the EU.
But environmental organisations and European Parliament lawmakers have questioned how far reaching the energy savings will be, with the proposal falling short of a 20-per-cent goal by 2020. Hedegaard said the outgoing presidency had at least tried to make strides on promoting green and sustainable economic growth.
At the launch of the presidency, Danish wind power system company Vestas said it planned to slash 2,335 positions as part of efforts to cut costs amid lower demand. The news was an embarrassment to Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, whose government had just started its EU presidency arguing that more investment in green technologies could provide a new source of jobs.
The presidency also faced unusually scathing criticism in June, after brokering a deal on how much control member states should have over the Schengen border-free area. It paved the way for the European Parliament to be less involved in the oversight of Schengen, infuriating lawmakers, who accused the Danish presidency of pandering to right-wing populism. The legislature retaliated by freezing negotiations on several dossiers.
The presidency has also faced accusations from some quarters that it was trying to slow down progress on a financial transaction tax because of Denmark's opposition to the idea. But Danish Economy Minister Margrethe Vestager last week presided over talks that paved the way for Germany and other willing countries to pursue the approach without waiting for the rest of the EU.
The Confederation of Danish Industry and Danish Chamber of Commerce said it had hoped for more progress on free trade agreements, but also praised the "pragmatic" Danish presidency. Denmark has been an EU member since 1973, but voters in the 5.5-million-strong country have twice rejected replacing the Danish krone with the euro.
Denmark and Britain are the only bloc members that are not legally bound to adopt the common currency, having secured treaty opt-outs. A new poll commissioned by Danske Bank showed that Danish opposition to the euro remains strong, with close to 69 per cent of respondents either opposed or likely to be opposed to its introduction. Thorning-Schmidt - who heads a left-leaning coalition - has in recent remarks ruled out an early referendum on the Danish opt-outs, which, in addition to the single currency, also cover the areas of defence, justice and home affairs.