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BRAZIL

US tech offer threatens Brazil Gripen deal

Swedish defence firm Saab has faced another setback in its bid to sell its Gripen aircraft to Brazil after a US official announced that it has offered the country a "significant technology transfer" if it buys US-made fighter jets.

Published: 18 February 2011 07:55 CET
US tech offer threatens Brazil Gripen deal

The transfer of military technology is a key factor for Brazil as it considers the Gripen NG made by Saab, the Rafale by France’s Dassault or Boeing’s F-18 Super Hornet for a contract worth between $4 billion and $7 billion.

“I would argue that the technology transfer that we are offering of this magnitude would put Brazil at par with our close partners,” Frank Mora, deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, told a legislative committee.

When asked if it were accurate that Brazil should not have doubts about the commitment to the technology transfer, he replied, “That is correct.”

“The United States has made a robust proposal of the Super Hornet technology — a significant technology transfer,” he said.

The contract is for 36 fighters with the possibility of many more aircraft in the future.

The competition for the contract has dragged on for years, with President Dilma Rousseff inheriting it from her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had declared a preference for French planes.

Arturo Valenzuela, assistant US secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said during the hearing on Thursday that “we always raise this issue” in talks between Brazil and the US.

US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Brazil in late March as part of a tour that includes stops in Chile and El Salvador. Brazil and the United States signed a military cooperation agreement in April 2010.

In December 2010, US diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks cited by newspaper Aftonbladet reported that Sweden was deceived by both the US and Norway regarding its neighbour’s interest in signing a multi-billion kronor deal to buy Sweden’s JAS Gripen fighter plane.

Norway ultimately decided to purchase the US-made Joint Strike Fighter/F-35 combat aircraft in a deal reportedly worth 55 billion kronor ($7.9 billion).

According to Aftonbladet, the United States threw a spanner in the works of the Gripen deal by stopping the export of an American-made radar component for use on the Swedish plane.

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SU

Denmark overspends own limit on SU grant for international students

State spending on foreign students who receive Denmark’s state student grant (Statens Uddannelsesstøtte, SU) has continued to increase despite the attempts of parliament to stem it.

Published: 29 September 2020 16:53 CEST
Denmark overspends own limit on SU grant for international students
An open day at the University of Copenhagen in 2014. Photo: Thomas Lekfeldt/Ritzau Scanpix

EU rules enable foreign EU nationals who study in Denmark to claim the country’s basic grant for study at universities or other youth education institutions.

The grant, officially called Statens Uddannelsesstøtte but broadly referred to more simply as SU, provides 6,243 kroner per month (before tax) to students over 20 years old, covering basic living costs.

Nationals of other EU countries, as well as Switzerland and Norway, are also entitled to claim SU under a 2013 EU ruling which states that they must be treated the same as Danish nationals with regard to SU provided they work for 10-12 hours weekly alongside their studies.

Since that ruling, the number of foreign students receiving SU in Denmark has increased from 5,100 in 2014 to 11,900 in 2019.

That is despite a 2013 SU reform in which a parliamentary majority agreed that annual expenditure on SU for foreign nationals must “not significantly exceed” 442 million kroner.

The Danish state in fact spent 513 million kroner on SU for foreign students in 2018, an amount that is expect to increase to 520 million kroner for 2019 once last year’s figure is finalised. The numbers comes from a parliamentary question to the minister of education and were first reported by Berlingske.

Foreign students in Denmark who qualify for SU are also eligible to draw the state student loan (SU-lån). The state has been reported to be struggling to recover large amounts of money loaned to foreign students who leave the country after completing their studies.

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A 2017 analysis by Danske Universiteter, the interest organisation for Denmark’s eight universities, found that the SU-eligible foreign students are worth the expense.

According to the analysis, foreign graduates of Danish universities contribute an average of 779,000 kroner to the country’s economy.

Nevertheless, conservative parties have expressed their opposition to the current levels of SU spending.

Liberal (Venstre) party education spokesperson Ulla Tørnæs, a former education minister, told Berlingske the situation was “not in order”.

“That is a very, very large amount of money. It has never, ever been the intention that Denmark should pay other countries’ education costs, as these figures suggest,” she said.

Conservative party education spokesperson Katarina Ammitzbøll said she would ask the government to outline how it intends to prevent further spending on international students’ SU.

The current minister for education, Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen, called international students a “benefit for Denmark” overall.

“But it is clear that there needs to be a balance in this. We need to find a fair balance between people that come here (to study) and how many subsequently stay here to work,” she said to Berlingske.

READ ALSO: ‘Denmark's constant residency curbs will turn away skilled workers' (2017)

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