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As Denmark has taken the helm of the Council, its bold climate credentials face the hard grind of EU-wide politics, and the EU leadership is more interested in competitiveness, digital development, re-armament and circular growth, etc. It is to be noted too that the Danish Presidency takes place during the preliminary discussions on the EU’s next long-term budget during 2028-2034. In this article the most interesting plan’s priorities are reviewed: agriculture and emission reduction.
Background
The presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council, which is the co-legislator of the EU legislature alongside the European Parliament. It rotates among the member states of the EU every six months. The presidency is a “collective responsibility” held by a EU member state’s government.
Main presidency’s function is to chair meetings of the Council, determine its agendas, set a work program and facilitate dialogue both at Council meetings, with other EU institutions and the member states’ governance.
Three successive presidencies in the Council are known as “presidency trios”: the current trio is made up of Poland (January–June 2025), Denmark (July–December 2025), and Cyprus (January–June 2026).
More in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_the_Council_of_the_European_Union
The Council Presidency is currently, as of July 2025, held by Denmark; it is the 8th time in her EU’s membership that Denmark (first was in 1973) holds the Council’s Presidency; this time there are three key directions in her priorities: all three are dealing with the European security. The first one is about strong and secure Europe (i.e. in all meaning of the word), the second is about prosperous and competitive Europe (including integrated approach to competitiveness, succeeding in the green and digital transitions, promoting an innovation and business-friendly environment, and the third one is about “free and democratic Europe” (with the focus on the upholding of European values within the EU).
Source: https://danish-presidency.consilium.europa.eu/en/programme-for-the-danish-eu-presidency/trio-programme/
Danish Presidency: some vital issues for the EU
= Green agro-policy for the EU states
In this priority’s Denmark wishes to attract the Union member states to the “green agriculture” concept, although some states are quite skeptical. The Denmark’s Presidency of the Council of the EU plans to combine in the work-plan vital and often controversial issues: e.g. climate, circular economy, energy efficiency, migration and more.
Thus, Danish minister for the “green transition”, Jeppe Bruus indicates that Denmark hopes to activate the six-month presidency with the tasks of meaningful EU-wide cooperation with farmers; the way that the Danish-activated and sweeping Green Tripartite Agreement, GTA from 2024 made a rare political consensus on climate and agriculture.
However, the Politico notes, the Denmark’s climate-forward message for the Presidency occurs at a time when the EU-27 is “moving in the opposite direction”, i.e. after more than a year of such events as farmers’ unrest, a rightward shift in the European Parliament, and pullback from the Commission’s first-term Green Deal, the stage is set for a presidency marked more by firefighting than forward motion.
More on the EU’s vision for agriculture in: https://www.integrin.dk/2024/12/11/the-european-vision-for-agriculture-and-food-policy/
For example, agro-sector experiences domestic success policy coped with the European constraints; thus, in 2024 Denmark became the first country in the world to legislate a tax on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture; the move that most states cannot afford. Under the nation-wide GTA, livestock emissions will be taxed starting in 2030, with revenue earmarked for green initiatives and farmer support. The Politico argues that the “deal was driven by necessity as much as ambition”: agriculture in Denmark accounts for about 29 percent of Denmark’s overall greenhouse gas emissions and around 80 percent of its methane and nitrous oxide emissions; largely from livestock and fertilizer use.
With a legally binding goal to cut national emissions by 70 percent by 2030, the Danish government concluded that without action on farming, the goal wouldn’t be achieved. Besides, the GTA is “aimed to correct course” by combining a phased-in tax with funding to support biodiversity, peatland restoration and farmer adaptation; all these measures imply “keeping the sector economically viable”.
However, some argue (e.g. A. Matthews, professor emeritus of European agricultural policy at Trinity College Dublin) that while Denmark “has taken the lead in tackling farming emissions, most other EU governments are reluctant to follow”.
It is vital to note that the agro-sector is closely connected to bio-diversity and climate; thus, the EU agro-Commission and the DG AGRI “are not prioritizing climate-green agenda, and the buzzwords now for agricultural policy are competitiveness and resilience, meaning adapting to climate change impacts, as some say. Otherwise, the Commission’s climate body -the DG CLIMA – “is aware that agriculture will need to contribute much more if the EU’s ambitious 90 percent reduction target by 2040 is to be achieved”. Hence, the Politico concludes that “the Danish presidency is unlikely to radically reshape EU agriculture policy, but it may help inject long-term thinking into a space dominated by short-term panic”.
Source and citation from: https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-eu-presidency-green-agriculture-skeptical-eu-climate-sustainability/
= EU-wide emissions-cutting issue
The Danish presidency has under three months to reach a deal on the EU’s next emissions-cutting targets. It is known that Denmark was the first EU state to endorse “setting the 2040 goal at 90 percent below 1990 emission levels”; that’s the figure the Commission has been promising for more than a year.
But other EU governments expressed fears that an all too stringent climate target would hurt the EU’s already floundering economy.
Therefore, on the second day of Copenhagen’s presidency in the Council, the European Commission unveiled its proposal for the bloc’s next climate milestone: a target to cut planet-warming emissions 90 percent by 2040. The target is already so contentious that the EU executive institution is expected to soften it with significant loopholes to ensure the law can pass. Even then, getting all EU-27 governments to find a common position is a daunting task, notes Politico.
To add to the pressure, Brussels has linked the 2040 goal to the bloc’s 2035 Paris Agreement on climate targets: each signatory state of the Agreement is obliged to submit 2035 plans this September, which the UN climate chief Simon Stiell has repeatedly described as “the most important policy documents of this century.”
The “climate intense timeline” gives Denmark the near-impossible task of landing a deal that will define the bloc’s economic and environmental policy during the Council Presidency, and will determine whether the EU can claim a leadership role in global climate talks. In less than three months these potential roadblocks would be a huge issue at the UN’s September deadline to submit national plans for reducing emissions by 2035, which will also form the centerpiece of November’s global climate conference in Brazil, known as COP30.
However, as Danish Climate Minister Lars Aagaard said to Politico, “We have to play with the cards that we’ve been given as a presidency; and it is a difficult hand”.
Source and citations from: https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-commission-denmark-copenhagen-prisdency-cut-emissions-2040-lars-aagaard/
Many EU governments are driving a hard bargain: in exchange for their support of the 2040 goal they’re looking to get concessions ranging from legislative changes to promises of financial help, legal loopholes and flexibility in calculating the targets.
If Denmark fails to square the circle by September, the EU’s 2035 plan will not be counted toward the UN’s tally of global targets; in this way casting doubt on the EU-27 ability to fill the diplomatic vacuum left by the United States’ withdrawal from international climate efforts, and weakening ability to pressure other major emitters like China to do more. “We are all aware that our deadline is mid-September … it leaves us with a quite tight time-window,” said Aagaard.
Another point of contention involves international carbon credits. The Commission has drafted a proposal that would allow the EU to outsource some of its climate efforts to poorer countries to meet its targets. Thus, many EU states like this idea, though academic communities don’t, making the whole idea even more difficult to fulfill.
The Commission wants to set the 2035 target halfway between the EU’s existing 2030 goal of 55 percent and the 90 percent for 2040. But some national capitals have argued that the EU should decouple the two to speed things up, though this step is resulting in a lower target.
Denmark is planning to stick to the EU executive’s plan. “The Paris Agreement was made in France and for Europe; I think we have a responsibility for keeping that process alive,” the Danish minister said. Plus, at this year’s UN summit in Brazil in November, the Danish minister will co-negotiate the deal on behalf of the EU alongside the Commission.
Additionally: Remarks by Commissioner Roswall on the Nature Credits Roadmap in: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_25_1741
Other issues
However, there are various other issues in the Danish Presidency: e.g. Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen pioneered hardline migration policies despite being on the left. Now she’s bringing her special formula to the EU stage.
More in: https://www.politico.eu/article/mette-frederiksen-denmark-migration-eu-presidency-europe/
Then, Denmark picks up the Council leadership baton at a moment of geopolitical volatility: it takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union from Poland as conflicts flare up around the world, budget discussions loom and trade tensions simmer, all while the EU shifts its focus to competitiveness.
Besides, defense and security will be top of mind as the EU continues to navigate choppy geopolitical waters. The bloc’s next seven-year cash pot will be presented in July, kicking off years of likely fraught negotiations. And the EU-US trade relationship remains unpredictable.
Denmark will also be under pressure to finalize a deal on climate targets and steer talks on a revamp of the EU’s pharmaceutical rules, while maintaining its role as an honest broker and withstanding lobbying from its own pharmaceutical industry. And there are many other issues in the file of the Danish Presidency!
More on the Presidency’s file in: https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-eu-presidency-policy-agenda-defense-pharma-climate-agriculture/