The topics are lined up when Marie Bjerre from the liberal Venstre holds a press conference in Århus.
The Danish EU minister bubbles with enthusiasm when she meets the visiting Brussels correspondents and promises to prioritize both security and competitiveness, migration and expansion.
–It is very important for Ukraine's struggle for freedom that they have an EU perspective. We owe it to them to move forward, she says, among other things.
Budget struggle awaits
The Danish half-year will include the first discussions on the EU's new long-term budget.
Here, Denmark has long been part of the "frugal four" - the countries that have fought hardest for as narrow and small an EU budget as possible. But ahead, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands will have to manage without Danish membership in that club.
–It is not our policy that the budget must increase, but we do not say no in advance. We must be more ambitious, Bjerre emphasizes
At the same time, she strongly emphasizes the importance of the budget also becoming better. The proposal that the EU Commission will present on July 16 is expected, for example, to mean major changes in how regional support works.
More to the Swedish people?
EU Minister Bjerre clearly shows that she does not want to see a similar budget as before, where a third of the money goes to regional support and another third to agriculture.
–If we enter into a discussion about the size of the budget, we also expect the budget to give more than it does today: that the Swedish and Danish people and all others should get more out of membership, says the EU minister.
–The challenges we face today are things that you cannot solve in Sweden or we in Denmark. We can only do that through the EU and by standing together, says Marie Bjerre in Århus.
Denmark has been a member of the EU since January 1, 1973, and is during the second half of 2025 the presidency country in the EU's Council of Ministers. This means, above all, that one leads the majority of the EU's ministerial meetings and negotiations on various legislative proposals with the EU Commission and the European Parliament.
The presidency is inaugurated on Thursday with a visit from the EU Commission in Århus, where King Frederik X and Queen Mary also participate. Later this year, an informal EU summit in Copenhagen is expected at the beginning of October, among other things.
Denmark is currently led by a three-party coalition between the Social Democrats, Venstre and The Moderate Party. Both of the latter parties are part of the EU's liberal party family. The Prime Minister since 2019 is the Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen (born 1977).
