Pushing countries to keep vows to boost defence spending and bolstering Europe’s “dangerous” security will top Denmark’s agenda as it takes over the European Union’s rotating presidency on Tuesday, according to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Denmark is among European nations put on edge by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and who have already increased military spending.
“We want something with our presidency. Security is clearly defined as the top priority,” Frederiksen said in an interview with the Politiken daily published on Sunday.
“We have a new NATO goal that has been adopted. For that to happen, we need to rearm Europe. Once the NATO goal is in place, most other things come down to EU policy,” she said.
NATO members agreed last week to invest 3.5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on core military spending and 1.5 percent on broader security-related areas such as infrastructure by 2035.
Spain has called the goal “unreasonable” and asked for flexibility.
During its six month turn as EU president, Denmark wants to push ahead with EU plans presented in March to increase EU defence capabilities by simplifying procedures and offering countries loans to finance investment in Europe’s defence industry.
Europe’s security situation is “unstable, and because it’s unstable, it’s dangerous,” Frederiksen told Politiken.
“If we look at the history of Europe, we know that conflicts tend to spread. There is so much tension today and that on its own can generate more tension,” she added.
Denmark is one of Europe’s biggest donors of aid to Ukraine.
In power since 2019, Frederiksen has significantly increased Denmark’s defence spending to more than three percent of GDP.
Copenhagen has been a staunch US ally but has increasingly switched its focus to European security after US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory.
In its programme for “A Secure Europe”, the Danish EU presidency has also prioritised the fight against illegal migration, vowing to come up with “new and innovative solutions”.
Denmark’s strict migration policies have spread across Europe, and the country hopes to build EU consensus on externalising asylum procedures outside Europe, and restricting the scope of rulings from the European Court of Human Rights.
“Irregular migration cannot be allowed to threaten European cohesion,” Denmark said in its official EU presidency programme.
The Scandinavian country recently joined Italy and seven other nations to seek a reinterpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights to allow for changes to migration policy, arguing that the text sometimes protects “the wrong people”.
