Danish green ambitions suffer a setback

Wind-turbine firm announces massive jobs losses, but Danish prime minister says she still believes the EU should invest in green growth.

The Danish government’s ambitions to use green technology to boost economic growth in the EU suffered a setback today when Danish wind-turbine maker Vestas announced it was laying off 2,300 staff.

The Danish government has made green growth one of the priorities for its presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, which started on 1 January.

On a day when members of the European Commission and the Danish government were meeting in Copenhagen to discuss the presidency’s priorities, Vestas, the world’s largest producer of wind turbines, announced it was laying off 1,300 workers in Denmark and a further 1,000 worldwide in an effort to cut costs. Ditlev Engle, the firm’s chief executive, said the cuts were needed because of a fall in orders, due in part to the economic crisis.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark’s prime minister, told a press conference in Copenhagen today that the announcement was “an enormous setback” but said she still believed that investing in green growth was the way forward for the EU. She said that Europe should be a world leader in green technologies.

At the same press conference, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said that the green technology sector was not the only one that had to shed jobs because of the financial crisis. He said that the news should not deter the EU from pursuing green growth.

Financial crisis

Thorning-Schmidt said that the Danish presidency would focus on getting the EU out of the economic crisis and boosting growth and job creation.

The economic crisis will continue to dominate the EU agenda during the Danish presidency. The presidency will be responsible for applying new rules that require countries to cut their debt and deficit levels in order to restore market confidence in the eurozone and other EU economies.
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Barroso said that while it was important to improve fiscal discipline to restore confidence, the EU also needed to take steps to boost growth.

“Discipline is indispensable but growth is also necessary,” he said.

He welcomed the fact that the Danish presidency had put completing the single market as one of its priorities as this would contribute to economic growth.

EU leaders are holding an informal summit on 30 January to discuss ways to strengthen growth and job creation.

Presidency slogans

The Danish presidency is using four slogans to sum up its priorities: ‘a responsible Europe’, ‘a dynamic Europe’, ‘a green Europe’ and ‘a safe Europe’.

The slogan ‘a responsible Europe’ refers to negotiations on the EU’s multiannual financial framework for 2014-20. The presidency wants the EU to target spending on growth-creating policies such as research and innovation. ‘Dynamic Europe’ is a reference to closing gaps in the EU’s single market while ‘safe Europe’ means fighting cross-border crime and terrorism, and working towards a common EU asylum system.  

Hungary

Barroso was asked at the press conference whether he thought that Hungary’s new constitution respected the EU’s core democratic values.

He replied that the Commission was analysing a number of Hungarian laws, including one regarding the central bank, to see if they were in line with EU legislation, and would announce its findings on Tuesday (16 January).

“We will use all our powers to make sure that Hungary complies with the rules and values of the EU, and I am confident we will achieve that,” he said.