Danish 'Lego presidency' could deliver lasting legacy for Europe

The Danish presidency of the European Union comes at one of the most difficult moments in the union's history.

It's biggest challenge: Keeping the EU construct together.

The financial crisis has driven a wedge between euro and non-euro countries, with David Cameron's UK seeking isolation from the rest of Europe at a time that the global economy is becoming increasingly interdependent.

Denmark joined the EU in 1973, at the same time as the UK, and it's the 7th time that it now holds the EU presidency.

Like the UK, Denmark is not a member of the Eurozone. Its government is ready to take a back seat in the French-German-led efforts to solve the euro crisis.

Yet....it's also has positioned itself as a bridge builder, eager to keep the EU from breaking up further.

The EU is braced for more contentious talks on changes to the EU treaty that would delegate more powers to Brussels to supervise member state budgets. Denmark will have no direct role in drafting that new treaty.

The presidency is a serious challenge for Helle Thorning-Schmidt, a graduate of the College of Europe in Belgium who became Denmark's first female prime minister last October.

Thorning-Schmidt leads a four-party coalition based on a narrow, 3-seat majority in the Danish parliament.

Her European agenda will be overshadowed by the financial crisis, but at the same time, she will see to book progress on other items that are important to the Danes: the climate, the EU's budget, and the single market.

If the Danes can manage that successfully, they can look back this summer and claim that they've done all they could.

But if they are seen taking up their ambition of being effective bridge builders, then Denmark, as an outsider to the euro zone, could deliver a lasting legacy.

Such a 'Lego presidency' could really lead to a more effective Europe, not just a Eurozone with better and stricter rules.

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• 2012
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• Helle
• Thorning-Schmidt
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[tagfull]

@c0N3x

LEGO is a private company with headquarter in Billund, Denmark. The company is still owned by the family Kirk Kristiansen, which founded Lego in 1932.

Look it up! - get your facts right.

[c0N3x]

im not quite sure what your saying. but denmark dosent own lego no more..

[ViriathusVingathor]

@mammasut82

I see you are a nazi retard,your sort will continue to be hunted down,like the vermin it is.

[mammasut82]

@ViriathusVingathor go fuck yourself union scum .... theoretically ..... well I live in the real world not a theoratically one ..... Either you are for the union or for your country,,,, When the figthing starts I dont think your therotically long haired explanation will save your ass

[ViriathusVingathor]

@888Valkyrie

It is needed a central state even if a weak one,and a balance between the central and the national states,with clearly defined boundaries.

[ViriathusVingathor]

@888Valkyrie

As we would at least spare the crooks generous paycheck,as most that stupid and worthless apparatus,and most of all the waste of 2% of the GDP,for very little,however it would be incapable to mount essential macro economic policies at european level,a bureaucratic confusion,economically and politically dysfunctional,a delusion,destined to be a complete failure.

[ViriathusVingathor]

@888Valkyrie

"Time"..thats the great objective in itself,Europe is slowly but surely dying,the commonwealth of nations with no central state you propose,that "the people want" would be alike this EU, theoretically worse,in practice better.

[ViriathusVingathor]

@888Valkyrie

EU was a most fantastic project,far from ridiculous,and idiotic,that was continuously adulterated,for national purposes by the Franco-German bloc,a continuous avoidance of the initial project,what this should have been since the 2000´s,or earlier,a fully accountable Democratic Federation of States.

[888Valkyrie]

The sooner the EU breaks up the better, the sooner the EUro collapses the sooner the green shoots of recovery will start to grow.

If Europe is to be anything significant a european commonwealth where power is not concentrated centrally is what the people want - not the power hungry, undemocratic unaccountable EU ... that should be wiped from the history books and those who supported it put up as objects of ridicule and idiocy for all time.

[ViriathusVingathor]

@mammasut82

Your conception is incorrect,you can be dane,etc,and be unionist,as long as the said Union,doesn´t involve the end of the political entity,which for now,theoretically doesn´t.