EU: Danish presidency promises little on social matters

The Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which begins on 1 July, promises to be light on social issues. While the Nordic centre-left government has indicated that it wants to defend free movement, “decent working conditions” and a “safe and healthy working environment”, its work programme contains no announcements of legislative initiatives. The main texts it promises to push forward on the social front are two non-binding texts, the Quality Jobs Roadmap and the European Commission recommendation on improving the conditions of trainees. The Danish Presidency also says it wants to “strengthen social dialogue” in line with the Pact agreed at the beginning of the year and will support the revision of the directive on carcinogens.

Worth noting: the lack of social proposals, which is palpable compared to the Spanish and Belgian presidencies at the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, is also reflected in the blocking of a possible directive on teleworking, which the Polish presidency wanted to see move forward and for which consultations had been launched in 2024. The Commission’s work programme published in February, focusing on “simplification” and competitiveness, is also the first since 2019 not to contain any social legislative initiatives.