Budget proposal to be presented 

The coalition government is scheduled to present a new budget proposal at noon today. Danish budgets are usually proposed and eventually adopted during the autumn, but last year’s election disrupted the normal timetable.

A so-called “negotiation reserve” (forhandlingsreserve), a pool of money in the budget that can be allocated at a later date based on agreements between parties, has been significantly cut from the amount set down by the proposal made by the pre-election, single-party Social Democratic government, according to news wire Ritzau.

Most of the reserve in the earlier proposal was expected to be expected on the health system.

The lower amount is due to the shorter timescale of this year’s budget according to the report.

We’ll report any key announcements from the budget proposal in an article on our website later today.

Labour court orders Copenhagen refuse collectors back to work

Refuse collectors in parts of Copenhagen have staged a wildcat strike – a strike not sanctioned by their trade union – in recent days, due to a dispute between the workers and the Amager Resource Center (ARC) waste management company, related to working hours.

The Danish labour court (Arbejdsretten) has ordered them to return to work and their unions have also said they should not continue the walkout, union journal Fagbladet 3F reports.

The labour court has ruled the strikes in breach of the refuse collectors’ collective bargaining agreement, meaning they can potentially be fined for continuing the action.

Five injured in Greenland shooting

Two people were hit by shots fired in the town of Narsaq in Greenland yesterday afternoon and a further three were injured in the incident, Greenland police chief Brian Thomsen told local media KNR.

The two people who were shot are not in a life-threatening condition.

The three injured people were hit by projectiles caused by the shots, according to the report. Police are yet to ascertain a motive for the shooting.

Denmark against EU plan to limit use of biomass as fuel

The government opposes an EU plan to limit the amount of wood member countries can burn as biomass, according to newspaper Dagbladet Information.

The EU parliament wants to reduce the forms of biomass that are considered sustainable energy, removing wood from this list.

But the climate ministry is against such a move, according to a letter sent by the ministry to an interest organisation for the Danish timer industry, Dansk Skovforening, according to Information.

The newspaper reports that, in the letter, the ministry states that it “does not think the EU parliament’s proposal to implement a new definition and place restrictions on the use of primary wood biomass is the right way to go”.

UN rules hold that biomass must be CO2 neutral but some experts have said it emits CO2 directly into the atmosphere, according to the report.