The European Commission today welcomed a decision by Denmark’s new government to scrap controversial plans for tighter border controls.

José Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission, said he welcomed the announcement by Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark’s prime minister, to drop plans for extra checks at its borders with Germany and Sweden.

“This was an issue that caused serious concerns for the Commission and I am happy we can put this behind us,” Barroso told Thorning-Schmidt after talks in Brussels.

Thorning-Schmidt, who was sworn in as prime minister on 3 October, said her centre-left government’s decision to scrap the border checks was a sign that it will be more pro-European than the previous Liberal-Conservative coalition.

“We want to have very close co-operation, not least because Denmark is taking over the European presidency [in January],” she said.

She said her government had also appointed the country’s first-ever European affairs minister and would organise a referendum on scrapping two of Denmark’s opt-outs, on defence policy and law enforcement, but not on the euro.

Barroso said the best time to hold a referendum would be after Denmark’s six-month presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, which ends in June 2012.

“We could use this period of the Danish presidency to make Europe better known in Denmark,” he said.

Thorning-Schmidt also held talks about the presidency with Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, and Jerzy Buzek, the president of the European Parliament.

She said the top priority of the presidency would be getting an agreement among member states on the 2014-20 multiannual financial framework.

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