Danish PM Rasmussen on Brexit: 'We need to learn from this choice. For 40 years people of Britain were told how European cooperation was holding them back. In fact Brexit has revealed how European cooperation was solving problems the Brits now have to deal with on their own.'
Rasmussen adds: 'In Britain the government perhaps forgot to tell about the results in Europe, forgot to tell about what we have achieved together and perhaps along the way they forgot to listen to the voices of concern too before it was all too late.'
Rasmussen says Denmark is 'pragmatic' about EU. 'Grand ideas of the United States of Europe fall on deaf ears. We're concerned with finding down to earth solutions to everyday problems, to making EU work better. Danes recognise a good deal when they see it and EU is a good deal.'
Fair play to Rasmussen, who isn't spouting the usual platitudes here. He moves onto Freedom of Movement, where he says has has a 'hard time defending and explaining the EU rules' over child benefits. He says they're 'not fair and a challenge to the Danish model of society'.
Rasmussen adds: 'EU must guarantee freedom to move but freedom of movement must also be fair & must not be abused.' He cites story about truck drivers as posted workers in DK. 'Stories like this hurt image of EU. In some cases solution is for EU to step down and interfere less.'
Rasmussen moves onto Trump: 'In the US, the land of dreams, they’re now dreaming of less free trade, of fewer international obligations, of barriers to trade and perhaps even of breaking up the international rules based trading system. We must not allow that to happen.'
That was a good speech - Rasmussen didn't pull his punches. Shame, as ever when it's not Merkel or Macron, that more MEPs didn't turn up to see it. 
