Denmark to push for Ukraine’s EU membership during presidency

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COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark will continue preparing Ukraine for EU membership in the face of Hungary blocking negotiations, when the Nordic country takes over the presidency of the European Council from July 1, its European affairs minister said on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, Hungary is blocking and we are trying to put as much pressure there as we can and also do everything we can to make Ukraine continue with the necessary reform work,” European affairs minister Marie Bjerre told a press conference in Copenhagen.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has strongly opposed providing NATO military and EU aid to Ukraine, saying the country’s EU membership would destroy Hungarian farmers and the wider economy.

Ukraine had already initiated the necessary reforms and is ready to speed up the negotiations.

“When we get to the point where we can actually open the specific negotiation chapters, we can be ready to close them very quickly,” Bjerre said.

Denmark will also seek to reach agreement among EU nations on the bloc’s planned 2040 climate goals.

The European Commission plans to propose in July a legally binding target to cut EU countries’ emissions by 90% by 2040, from 1990 levels.

Faced with pushback from governments, however, Brussels is assessing options including setting a lower target for domestic industries, and using international carbon credits to make up the gap to 90%.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Louise Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik)