Denmark has taken over the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, inheriting unfinished talks on a €150 billion defense loan fund, an 18th sanctions package against Russia and Ukraine’s stalled accession bid.
“Our aim is for the EU to defend itself by 2030; we want to lay the groundwork now,” Danish European affairs minister Marie Bjerre said of the security fund, agreed in principle under Poland.
Copenhagen must still bargain with the European Parliament over a linked €1.5 billion grants program.
Poland nearly clinched the new sanctions round, but Slovakia’s veto and Hungary’s refusal to open membership talks with Kyiv left the files for Denmark to resolve. Analyst Rikard Jozwiak doubts progress, saying enlargement “was Poland’s specialty, unlikely to be repeated soon”.
The Danes also inherit legislation to speed approval of cheap generic medicines, a breakthrough Warsaw secured among member states but not Parliament.
Unlike its predecessor, Copenhagen plans to advance climate policy and will seek consensus on cutting EU carbon emissions 90 % by 2040.
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Source: IAR