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TODAY IN DENMARK

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday

Mystery of shark on cycle path solved, Danish tax agency strikes deal with Sanjay Shah partners, companies cut ties with Copenhagen Pride over Gaza and more news from Denmark on Wednesday.

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday
The Copenhagen Pride parade passes the Byen area of Copenhagen in 2023. Photo: Emil Nicolai Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

Police solve mystery of shark on cycle path 

Police in Jutland have solved the mystery behind the metre-and-a-half long shark that appeared on a cycle path last week in Rindum, near Ringkøbing. 

Tip-offs from helpful locals helped local investigators trackdown the perpetrator, police wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. 

“The man had come into possession of the dead shark in the harbor in connection with some by-catch or fish waste. He took it with him and then put it on the cycle path to have a bit of fun,” police wrote.

The man will be fined, but the exact amount has yet to be determined.  

Last week, the radio host Anders Lund Madsen offered to provide a three-course menu at the upmarket Restaurant Sandgaarden in Søndervig to anyone who could solve the mystery.

Danish vocabulary: haj-mysterium – shark mystery

Denmark’s tax authorities strike deal with Sanjay Shah partners

Denmark’s tax agency has reportedly struck a deal worth hundreds of millions of kroner to recover wrongly awarded dividend refunds it paid out under the allegdly fraudulent Cum-Ex trading scheme.

According to DR, the Danish Tax Agency has reached a settlement with four of the closest employees and business partners of Sanjay Shah, the hedge fund trader who was the mastermind behind the scheme, which will see several hundred milion kroner paid back to the Danish treasury. 

The agency told DR tht it had entered into a total of 25 settlements in relation to the dividend case, amounting to a total of 2.4 billion kroner (including interest), of which the agency has currently received 1.3 billion kroner.

Danish vocabulary: et forlig – a settlement/binding agreement 

Danish companies cut ties with Copenhagen Pride after Gaza statement 

The bank Nykredit on Wednesday withdrew its sponsorship for Copenhagen Pride, the Copenhagen chapter of the international gay rights organisation, adding to the long list who have cut ties over the organisation’s stance on Israel’s attack on Gaza. 

“Unfortunately, the recent months’ debate in and around Copenhagen Pride has created doubts for us about where Copenhagen Pride has its focus and what kind of attitudes we as a company help to support,” Trine Ahrenkiel, HR and Communications Director at the bank said in a written comment to TV 2.

The list of organisations who have cut support include Mærsk, Novo Nordisk and Dansk Industri.

On February 14th, Copenhagen Pride said that it “stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people”, a position criticised as taking sides in the conflict.

The discount supermarket chain Netto is sticking to its collaboration with Copenhagen Pride, it announced last week.

Danish vocabulary: desværre – unfortunately  

Students hold pro-Gaza demonstration at Copenhagen University

Students at the pro-Gaza tent encampment at Copenhagen University held a manifestation on Tuesday afternoon at which they reiterated calls that the university provide full transparency over its investments in companies linked to Israel, and sell shares in any companies that profit from or are complicit in the occupation of Palestinian territories. 

Emil Nielsen from theorganisation Students Against the Occupation told Ritzau that the organization had gained access to the university’s investments, complaining that it had investments, though Nordea and Nykredit in companies such as Booking.com, Airbnb and eDreams, which he said had ended up on the UN’s so-called black list of companies that do not live up to the UN conventions the university had committed to uphold. 

Danish vocabulary: sorte liste – black list 

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TODAY IN DENMARK

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the latest news on Friday

Denmark announces new defence package for Ukraine, subsidies to museums boosted, economy growing faster than expected and other news from Denmark on Friday.

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the latest news on Friday

Denmark donates billions to Ukraine for air defence and ammunition

Denmark has agreed to donate 5.6 billion kroner to Ukraine, in its 18th donation package to the country to help it repel Russia’s invasion.

“This is quite a large package: we are currently the country which provides the largest military support to Ukraine pro rata,” Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, told the Ritzau newswire. .

Around 2.4 billion kroner is set earmarket for improving Ukraine’s air defences and part will go towards developing Ukraine’s new fleet of F-16 fighter planes, some of which Denmark has given. It is not yet known when Denmark’s planes will be sent to Ukraine. 

“Everyone knows that Ukraine is in desperate straits for better air defences. We have nothing, but we have the resources. We have included that in this package,” Rasmussen said. 

Danish vocabulary: luftforsvar – air defences

Denmark to boost subsidies to museums in new cross-party deal 

Denmark’s government has struck a deal with opposition parties to increase the annual subiduy to museums in the country by 75 million kroner a year, pushing the annual grant to 565.7 million from 2025. 

Under the news subsidy system, museums will be divided into five categories, which will determine how big its basic grant will be. A new national museum board will be set up to assess whether museums will be among those eligible for subsidy or be stripped of state recognition. 

To be categorised as a state-recognised museum, museums must have an annual income of at least 4m kroner and at least 10,000 annual visitors, although this is reduced to 3m kroner and 8,000 visitors for museums on Denmark’s smaller islands. 

The deal was struck between the three government parties and all other parties in government apart from the Alternative and Nye Borgerlige parties. 

Danish vocabulary: museumsnævn – board of museums 

Denmark’s economy growing faster than expected 

Denmark’s economy is growing faster than the government expected, inflation is falling faster, and employment is holding up better, Denmark’s economy minister, Stephanie Lose, said at a press conference announcing the government’s Økonomisk Redegørelse, or financial statement, for May.

“In the past two years, the pharmaceutical industry in particular has driven growth in the Danish economy, while there has been stagnation or decline in large parts of the rest of the economy,” she said. “In the coming years, other industries again look set to contribute to growth. Added to this is the reopening of the Tyra field in the North Sea, which also contributes to growth in GDP.” 

The government has increased its expectation for Denmark’s growth rate since its last statement in December, with it now expecting 2.7 percent growth in 2024, up from the 1.4 percent it expected for the year in December. 

The government has significantly upgraded its expectations of what will happen to the price of domestic property this year. It now expects prices to increase by an average of 3.2 percent in 2024 and 3 percent in 2025, a rise of two percentage points on the 1.2 percent rise for 2024 it expected when it made its last forecast in December. 

Danish vocabulary: forventningen – the expectation

Denmark joins countries calling for asylum centres outside EU

Denmark is one of 15 EU member states who have sent a joint letter to the European Commission demanding a further tightening of the bloc’s asylum policy, which will make it easier to transfer undocumented migrants to third countries, such as Rwanda, including when they are rescued at sea.

The letter, sent to the European Commission on Thursday, comes less than a month before European Parliament elections, in which far-right anti-immigration parties are forecast to make gains.

The letter asks the European Union’s executive arm to “propose new ways and solutions to prevent irregular migration to Europe”.

The group includes Italy and Greece, which receive a substantial number of the people making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to reach the EU — many seeking to escape poverty, war or persecution, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Denmark’s former government sought to open an asylum reception centre in a third country, with the then immigration minister Mattias Tesfaye visiting Rwanda. But the current govermment has pledged to try and establish centres in a third country through the EU. 

They want the EU to toughen up its recently adopted asylum pact, which introduces tighter controls on those seeking to enter the 27-nation bloc.
That reform includes speedier vetting of people arriving without documents, new border detention centres and faster deportation for rejected asylum applicants.

The 15 proposed in their letter the introduction of “mechanisms… aimed at detecting, intercepting — or in cases of distress, rescuing — migrants on the high seas and bringing them to a predetermined place of safety in a partner country outside the EU, where durable solutions for those migrants could be found”.

Danish vocabulary: modtagecenter – reception centre

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