Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt is satisfied with the agreement yesterday between 25 of the 27 EU member countries, including Denmark, to enter into a fiscal pact that binds signatory countries to fiscal discipline.

“I believe it has been a good day,” Thorning-Schmidt says adding: “We have had a very good discussion about the pact that we have now agreed on and we have also spent a lot of time discussing growth and jobs in Europe”.

The prime minister added that the agreement reached after six hours of discussions was a satisfactory one, with those issues that the Danish government has sought to change in the agreement having been accepted.

For example the fines that Denmark could be forced to pay to the European Union if it breaks the pact’s rules will not be paid into a fund that can only be used by euro countries, but into the general EU budget.

“If I put Danish glasses on I have to say that we have been successful in the things we have fought for,” says Thorning-Schmidt, who also took part in the discussions as head of the EU presidency, which Denmark holds for the next six months.

The fiscal pact is designed to prevent national debts of the type seen in Greece, and while the pact is obligatory for euro countries, non-euro countries have been free to join. Britain and the Czech Republic have declined to join.

A hurdle in Monday’s discussions has been the extent to which non-euro countries in the pact can influence developments, with Poland – which is destined to join the euro in 2015, in particular unhappy that it would not be able to take part in all meetings about the pact.

In the event, agreement was reached that non-euro countries, including Denmark, may take part in one pact summit each year as well as general discussions on the future of the euro.

Thorning-Schmidt says she believes Poland has been satisfied with the result, and as for Denmark: “We are satisfied with the framework and the ability to come to meetings which we would not otherwise had access to “.

The pact will now have to be ratified by the Danish Parliament. Thorning-Schmidt says that the pact is within the mandate she has received from Parliament, and once the legal issues of the text have been studied, Denmark should be able to sign without problems.

“The Czech Republic and Great Britain have stayed out of the framework. I hope and will work for a situation in which we can still take decisions as 27 countries. But we must accept that there is an EU of 17 euro countries, and 25 countries who are part of this fiscal pact,” Thorning-Schmidt says.

The fiscal pact agreement will now be transformed into concrete laws, with heads of state and government of the 25 pact member countries due to sign at a summit in March, after which members will introduce budget legislation. That legislation will determine, among other things, that structural deficits in member countries must be no greater than 0.5 per cent of GDP.

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