With 1 July, Poland’s turn to occupy the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU is officially ending. The Northern European nation of Denmark is taking the helm, a year after Hungary, which held the office between July and December 2024. Evidently, the approaches of Hungary and Denmark to the EU presidency are vastly different from each other. This is what was discussed on the morning show Napindító (Day Starter) on the Hungarian news channel Hír TV on Tuesday, 1 July.
Hír TV’s Brussels correspondent Andrea Németh joined the broadcast via satellite. She informed the audience that the core mission of the presidency is to ‘be the guardian of the seamless facilitation of the lawmaking procedure’. The EU presidencies are made up of ‘trios’, she added. Denmark will be aided by Cyprus and Poland, its successor and predecessor, in its duties.
This is the eighth time Denmark is taking on this role. It did so for the first time in 1973, and most recently in 2012.
The Danish will be carrying over from the Hungarian presidency the European competitiveness as one of the priority themes, Németh pointed out. Strengthening defence and the green transition will be its other two top priorities during the presidency.
On the more controversial agenda points, Denmark is in favour of Ukraine’s accession into the Union, something that is in heavy contrast with the Hungarian Orbán administration’s position on the matter. However, they also support EU expansion to the Western Balkan countries, which is common ground with Hungary. The correspondent also shared that ‘enforcing the Migration Pact [of 2024] is very much in the foreground’ for the new presidency, another issue where the Hungarian and Danish positions clash.
In fact, the EU has been infamously fining Hungary €1 million for not complying with the migrant quotas outlined in the pact since September 2024.
On the Hír TV morning programme, Németh went on to say that Denmark is also pushing for breaking away from Russian energy imports, and they are looking to do it in the near future. This is also a point of contention with the Hungarian government. On this issue, Hungary has the strong backing of another Member State in the region, Slovakia, which also heavily relies on gas and oil imports from Russia to meet its energy needs. Hungary and Slovakia were the two countries that vetoed the most recent sanction package against Russia, Németh highlighted.
On another controversial matter, the rule of law, the Danish government is, alas, likely to keep pressing the assessment procedure against Hungary. However, on the flip side, despite supporting the Migrant Pact, Denmark is surprisingly also willing to take efforts to reinforce the EU’s external borders. According to the Hír TV reporting, they are planning on creating deportation zones in third countries outside the Union, where illegal migrants could be moved to after removal orders.
Currently, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is heading the Danish government. She has been in office since 2019, and is a member of the centre-left Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet) party.
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