Jeppe Kofod

Jeppe Kofod was a Member of the Danish Parliament, the Folketing, first elected after the 1998 Danish general election for the constituency of Bornholm.[2] During his time in the Danish Parliament he served as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[2]

In 2008, Kofod resigned as foreign policy spokesman for the Social Democrats after being found to have had sex with a 15-year-old member of the youth wing of the political party. Kofod was 34 years old at the time. Denmark's age of consent is 15. He commented at the time that he had shown a 'lack of judgment' in having a 'morally inappropriate relationship'. The incident had occurred at a party after a Social Democratic Youth of Denmark event on 21 March 2008 at the University of Southern Denmark.[3][4][5]

Kofod was the head of the Danish Socialists and Democrats' delegation and Vice-President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.[6] Serving his first term, he was elected to the European Parliament at the 2014 European Parliament election, with a total of 170.739 personal votes.[7] He was re-elected in 2019.[8]

During his time in the European Parliament, Kofod served on the following Committees and Delegations:[9]

• Vice-chair, European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the United States[10]
• Rapporteur, European Parliament Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect (TAXE 2)[11]
• Member, European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
• Substitute, European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
• Substitute, European Parliament Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly

In addition to his committee assignments, Kofod was a member of the following intergroups in the European Parliament:

• European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources (EUFORES)[12]
• Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals[13]
• Intergroup on LGBTI Rights[14]

Kofod was also a supporter of the MEP Heart Group, a group of parliamentarians who have an interest in promoting measures that help reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVD).[15] He sat on the Executive Committee of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA).

On 27 June 2019, Kofod was named Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Frederiksen Cabinet.[16][17]

Early during his tenure, Kofod and Frederiksen faced a diplomatic incident when U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed his interest in buying Greenland from Denmark;[18] at the time, Kofod said the island could not be bought “in dollars, yuan or roubles”.[19] He later approved the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Greenland's capital Nuuk, which was widely seen as part of a broader move by the U.S. to expand its diplomatic and commercial presence in Greenland and the Arctic.[20] In 2020, he welcomed a $12.1 million economic aid package from the U.S. government for Greenland.[21]

At Easter 2008, the then 34-year-old Jeppe Kofod appeared in the media because it emerged that in the evening after giving a lecture for the Social Democratic Youth of Denmark (DSU), he had sex with a 15 year-old girl from DSU.[22][23] The episode led, among other things, to Kofod resigning from his committee posts and his post as foreign affairs spokesman for the Social Democrats.[24][25] The chairman of DSU, Jacob Bjerregaard, stated that Jeppe Kofod had violated DSU's rules and that he was no longer welcome in DSU.[26][27]

In 2020 Kofod was reported to the police on rape accusations, by activist Lars Kragh Andersen.[28] Following the report, the police is carrying out a legal assessment of the case to identify if there is a basis for another investigation into the 12-year-old case.[29]