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TODAY IN DENMARK

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Tuesday

Police officer fined for taking gun to concert, SAS gets fine over Covid rule breach, government wants to move children out of gang families and more news from Denmark on Tuesday.

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Tuesday
Queen Mary recently opened a new section of Copenhagen Dyrehaven deer park. Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

Police officer fined for taking service weapon to concert 

An experienced police officer has been fined 5,000 kroner for taking his service weapon to a restaurant and a Simply Red concert when off-duty in 2022.

The officer was found to have abused his position of authority and was sentenced under weapons laws at Copenhagen City Court.

In court, the officer said that he felt nervous about attending the concert with his partner and friends, and that his experience in law enforcement told him attacks can happen. He therefore went into his workplace and took his pistol, which he hid under his clothes.

He wore the pistol during the concert at Royal Arena and at the nearby Field’s shopping mall, which was the scene of a deadly shooting attack in July 2022.

Vocabulary: tjenestepistol – service pistol

SAS slapped with 250,000 kroner fine for breaching Covid regulations

Scandinavian airline SAS was given a fine of a quarter of a million kroner for failing to comply with Covd-19 regulations.

The company had denied the charges but was found guilty by Copenhagen City Court of transporting 35 passengers without valid Covid-19 tests to Copenhagen Airport in spring 2021.

The passengers were on a flight from Mallorca, where they transferred at Copenhagen Airport before continuing to Stockholm.

SAS had been accused of similar violations on other services, but was only found guilty in relation to the Mallorca flight.

Vocabulary: at overtræde reglerne – to breach the rules

Government spokesperson backs removing children from gang-connected families

The Social Democratic justice spokesperson, Bjørn Brandenborg, told TV2 Fyn that he wants authorities to have the power to remove children from their families in certain circumstances where the parents are gang members.

Brandenborg’s comments came after Odense Municipality said it had spent 226 million kroner since 2009 on social services for eight specific families with gang connections.

“There is simply a need for us to give the authorities full backing and power to forcibly remove children early so we break the food chain and the children don’t become part of gang circles,” he said.

A proposal will be tabled in parliament “within a few weeks”, he said.

Vocabulary: bemyndigelse – power of authority

New Copenhagen bus terminal on the way

The chaotic Ingerslevsgade coach terminal in Copenhagen is set to be replaced by a new purpose-built facility.

After several years of passengers using little more than a roadside parking lane as the main city bus terminal, Copenhagen’s new purpose-built bus station at Carsten Niebuhrs Gade is scheduled to open on June 6th, Copenhagen Municipality has confirmed.

Features of the new long-distance bus terminal will include a departures hall, a convenience store, information screens and platforms which do not involve crossing bicycle lanes – all of which are lacking on Ingerslevsgade.

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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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