Europe will accept austerity with 'justice': Danish PM

(WASHINGTON) - The prime minister of Denmark, the country that currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said Friday that Europeans are ready to accept austerity measures so long as they are assured of a safety net.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was visiting Washington where she will hold talks with US President Barack Obama about economic woes in Europe, where Greece and other nations are struggling to pay off massive public debt.

Thorning-Schmidt, one of the few left-leaning EU leaders, backed economic reforms -- which she said were "perhaps the most radical in 60 years" for the continent -- but said Europeans wanted to preserve a unique social model.

"People are prepared to make sacrifices, but they will not be sacrificed," Thorning-Schmidt said at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning Washington think-tank.

"It must be possible to have fair austerity," she said. "If austerity is fairly applied, people will accept austerity with justice."

"We have shown that we are capable of making decisions. I'm not standing here today declaring that Europe is back, but I firmly believe that Europe will get there," she said.

Thorning-Schmidt said she wanted greater cooperation with the United States in areas including trade and green growth. Denmark has made ambitious pledges to cut carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

Denmark does not use the euro but, unlike Britain, it has pegged its krone to the single European currency and joined a fiscal treaty on debt reduction.

The Greek parliament on Thursday approved a 107 billion-euro debt writedown with private creditors, but leftist unions have led major protests against austerity measures.