Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt talks to EuroparlTV about the challenges her country faces in chairing the EU Council.

Interview: Denmark takes over an EU in crisis

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15821980/n003-0167-en_mf.srt

Prime Minister,  Denmark is not in the eurozone.

You've taken over the Presidency  at a very difficult time.

How can you defend the euro  from outside?

I feel confident that the eurozone states will  do everything they can to defend the euro.

And this is what we're doing with the fiscal  compact that we're discussing right now,

and I'm convinced that it's a good  stepping stone to safeguarding the euro.

Denmark as a country will participate as  much as it can in the financial compact.

And we will help to bridge  whatever we need to bridge

between the euro Member States  and the non-euro Member States.

How will you handle the business of  the agreement amongst the 26 states?

It's important to understand  that it's not an issue for the Presidency,

because we don't preside over that process,  it's outside the treaties.

But we will do as much as we can to make  the fiscal compact happen, to get it adopted.

We'll be working on getting it done for  the 30 January European Council meeting.

At the same time, we want to focus  on creating growth and jobs

and we also want to discuss that  at the meeting.

The MEPs on the advisory panel have said  they're not very happy with it.

They say it doesn't respect  the community method.

How can you ensure that whatever is done  does protect the European institutions' role?

I would have preferred to have this done in  the community method, within our treaties.

That wasn't possible. So now  it's being done outside the treaties.

What is good about it is that  we're taking steps to save the euro.

It's also good that  this is an inclusive process

in which the Member States and  the European Parliament are involved.

And it's also a good thing that written  in the new treaty, or agreement, is the aim

to get it back to the European Union  as quickly as possible.

You talked about the importance of growth  and jobs, not just austerity measures.

This echoes what Mario Draghi  said to the ECON committee:

We mustn't allow restoring confidence to be  done at the expense of the real economy.

It is very important to say  that there's no contradiction

between austerity and consolidation  and jobs and growth.

As I see it, these are two sides  of the same coin.

We need discipline in our economies, order  in our Member States' economic houses

in order to create the foundation  for growth and jobs.

But at the same time  we need to do everything in our power

with our common budget,  with our structural funds,

And that should happen at the same time  as we consolidate our economies.

The Presidency also favours green growth.

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, a predecessor  of yours, is involved with off-shore wind.

How can you persuade others  this is important at a time of austerity?

Many Member States are concerned about  energy efficiency and energy security.

And the solution to that is to move fast in  adopting the EU's energy efficiency dossier.

This is very important because  I am convinced that

if we become more efficient  in our energy use, use less energy,

and when we need new technologies,  we create new labour intensive jobs.

Let's not forget that 20 million jobs  are connected to the environment.

We should be happy that we have managed  to have a leading role in this area.

Our job is, of course, to make sure  we keep that leading role in the green area.

Just finally, your Presidency involves  something like 14 meetings a day

between now and the end of June,  a terrific obligation.

At the same time, you want to actually  cut the cost of running a Presidency.

Is that a realistic option?  Could you teach the others how to do it?

Well, first, we want to make a greener  Presidency, we're trying to do that as well,

and we want to make a Presidency  which is cost-efficient.

We are all-in, in terms of our work capacity.

And I can assure everyone that  the Danish government will work tirelessly

to ensure that we create tangible results  for the citizens of Europe.

This is what Europe needs  in a time of crisis.