Today in Denmark: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday
Denmark to triple defence spending to nearly €20bn, Norway PM refuses to confirm Mette Frederiksen Nato rumours, parliament strips smallest parties of state funding, and government to own a fifth of new wind parks. Here's the news from Denmark on Wednesday.
Parliament cuts support to Free Greens and Christian Democrats with new law
A broad majority in the Danish Parliament passed a bill on Tuesday that will make it more difficult to receive party support from the state from next year, stopping two small parties from receiving state support.
From next year, parties will need to have won the equivalent of 3.2 mandates in the parliament, 1.83 percent of the votes in a general election, or approximately 64,000 votes to be eligible for state support.
.This means that the Free Greens will from next year lose their annual subsidy of 1,136,385 kroner and the Christian Democrats will lose their subsidy of 653,367 kroner. In the 2022 election, neither party reached the 2 percent threshold to be eligible for a seat in parliament.
Danish vocabulary: partistøtte – party support (state financing given to political parties)
Norwegian PM praises Mette Frederiksen but refuses to confirm Nato rumours
Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, heaped praise on Denmark's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, when asked to assess her chances as Nato's next Secretary General, but refused to be drawn on whether she was in the running.
"She is one of Europe's most talented prime ministers. One of those I know best and with whom I have the closest contact. I have only good things to say about her," Gahr Støre said, speaking at a joint press conference with outgoing Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. "But we will discuss who will lead Nato another time."
The Norwegian newspaper VG recently claimed it had spoken to two "central sources", who had indicated that Mette Frederiksen was in the running for the role.
"Her name is now on the table with Nato's 31 top leaders, who decide who will lead Nato," the newspaper wrote.
Danish vocabulary: kilder – sources
Danish state to own a fifth of new offshore wind turbines
Denmark's parliament has voted through a new law that will give it a 20 percent stake in the 6 to 14 gigawatts of offshore wind being built under the country's climate plans will have a 20 percent government stake.
"We can now finally give the market the green light for the development of potentially 14 gigawatts of offshore wind or more, and for most of them the state and the Danes will for the first time become co-owners and therefor get a share of the actual income from offshore wind," Denmark's minister for climate and energy, Lars Aagaard, said in a statement.
The parliament voted through the new agreement, which sets the framework for a total of 9GW of new wind power, on Tuesday evening.
Danish vocabulary: havvindmøller – offshore wind turbines
Denmark pledges to hit Nato's two percent spending target by 2030
Denmark aims to triple spending on defence to nearly €20bn over the next decade, bringing it to the Nato's spending target of 2 percent of GDP by 2030, the country's acting defence minister has announced.
The new budget totals 143.2bn kroner over the next ten years, with annual spending rising steadily from 6.7bn kroner in 2023 up to 19.2bn by 2032.
Some 105.4 billion will go to new defence and security priorities, while 26.9bn kroner will go towards repairing and renovating buildings, improving IT and supporting personnel, and 10.9bn kroner will go towards investing in staff and materials. Around 21.9 billion kroner will go into the government's Ukraine fund.
Denmark will only meet Nato's 2 percent target under the spending plans if the donations it has made to Ukraine through its Ukraine fund are included.
At the press conference Poulsen said that for him there was "no doubt whatsoever" that Ukraine spending was a part of the country's defence budget and so should qualify towards the Nato goal.
Danish vocabulary: forsvar – defence
Comments
See Also
Parliament cuts support to Free Greens and Christian Democrats with new law
A broad majority in the Danish Parliament passed a bill on Tuesday that will make it more difficult to receive party support from the state from next year, stopping two small parties from receiving state support.
From next year, parties will need to have won the equivalent of 3.2 mandates in the parliament, 1.83 percent of the votes in a general election, or approximately 64,000 votes to be eligible for state support.
.This means that the Free Greens will from next year lose their annual subsidy of 1,136,385 kroner and the Christian Democrats will lose their subsidy of 653,367 kroner. In the 2022 election, neither party reached the 2 percent threshold to be eligible for a seat in parliament.
Danish vocabulary: partistøtte – party support (state financing given to political parties)
Norwegian PM praises Mette Frederiksen but refuses to confirm Nato rumours
Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, heaped praise on Denmark's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, when asked to assess her chances as Nato's next Secretary General, but refused to be drawn on whether she was in the running.
"She is one of Europe's most talented prime ministers. One of those I know best and with whom I have the closest contact. I have only good things to say about her," Gahr Støre said, speaking at a joint press conference with outgoing Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. "But we will discuss who will lead Nato another time."
The Norwegian newspaper VG recently claimed it had spoken to two "central sources", who had indicated that Mette Frederiksen was in the running for the role.
"Her name is now on the table with Nato's 31 top leaders, who decide who will lead Nato," the newspaper wrote.
Danish vocabulary: kilder – sources
Danish state to own a fifth of new offshore wind turbines
Denmark's parliament has voted through a new law that will give it a 20 percent stake in the 6 to 14 gigawatts of offshore wind being built under the country's climate plans will have a 20 percent government stake.
"We can now finally give the market the green light for the development of potentially 14 gigawatts of offshore wind or more, and for most of them the state and the Danes will for the first time become co-owners and therefor get a share of the actual income from offshore wind," Denmark's minister for climate and energy, Lars Aagaard, said in a statement.
The parliament voted through the new agreement, which sets the framework for a total of 9GW of new wind power, on Tuesday evening.
Danish vocabulary: havvindmøller – offshore wind turbines
Denmark pledges to hit Nato's two percent spending target by 2030
Denmark aims to triple spending on defence to nearly €20bn over the next decade, bringing it to the Nato's spending target of 2 percent of GDP by 2030, the country's acting defence minister has announced.
The new budget totals 143.2bn kroner over the next ten years, with annual spending rising steadily from 6.7bn kroner in 2023 up to 19.2bn by 2032.
Some 105.4 billion will go to new defence and security priorities, while 26.9bn kroner will go towards repairing and renovating buildings, improving IT and supporting personnel, and 10.9bn kroner will go towards investing in staff and materials. Around 21.9 billion kroner will go into the government's Ukraine fund.
Denmark will only meet Nato's 2 percent target under the spending plans if the donations it has made to Ukraine through its Ukraine fund are included.
At the press conference Poulsen said that for him there was "no doubt whatsoever" that Ukraine spending was a part of the country's defence budget and so should qualify towards the Nato goal.
Danish vocabulary: forsvar – defence
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.