The priorities of Denmark's Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers were presented to Industry, Research and Energy committee by Danish ministers at meetings on 24-25 January.
The Energy Efficiency Directive is a top legislative priority for the Danish Presidency, Minister for Climate, Energy and Buildings Martin Lidegaard told the Industry, Research and Energy Committee on 25 January. This directive will become a "driver for Europe's economic recovery", he said.
Other priorities include further modernising energy infrastructure, the Energy Roadmap 2050, the Low-Carbon Economy Roadmap, the regulation on the safety of offshore oil and gas extraction and the legislative proposal to create an information exchange mechanism with regard to inter-governmental agreements in energy field.
The Single Market Act is also a key priority, Business and Growth, Minister Ole Sohn told the committee on 25 January, adding that the Digital Single Market and Digital Agenda are of special interest for EU's "financial consolidation and growth". A first-reading agreement on Roaming Regulation III will probably be reached under this Presidency, whilst the Connecting Europe Facility, the directive on access to public data and clarifying ENISA's future are also important priorities.
Horizon 2020, the EU research and innovation framework programme for 2014-2020, is a key legislative priority, Research, Innovation and Higher Education, Minister Morten Ostergaard told the committee on 24 January. In these challenging times, the Commission proposal is the right way to strengthen research and innovation in order to create growth and jobs, he said.
Other legislative priorities include the European Institute for Innovation and Technology, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme, which aims to help combat climate change and environmental degradation, and Euratom.