The Week That Was, March 6th – March 12th 2017 

Politics/Economy

As the government completed its first 100 days in power, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen urged his cabinet ministers to ‘consult with, and inform’ the Danish People’s Party (DPP) on a regular basis – the reach-out came after the DPP’s deputy leader, Søren Espersen, said he’s tired of the coalition’s support party being taken for granted.

The Danish People’s Party demanded to know why the government is no longer prioritising the migration crisis, after Anders Samuelsen said the world has changed and globalisation is now the major foreign policy issue.

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the Danish military needs massive investment to deal with a ‘wide range of threats’, including Russian aggression, terrorism, militant Islamism, and migration.

The external cyber threat to Denmark is now so intense that Military Intelligence (FE) is hiring and training its own high-skilled hackers to protect authorities and Danish infrastructure against IT attacks from foreign powers, criminals, and spies – at the same time the Danish Consumer Council (Tænk) reported Google to the Danish Data Protection Agency (DDPA) for breaking personal data laws and endangering the privacy of its users by storing search records for many years.

The ruling Liberals came under fire for allowing a business lobbying club to use the prime minister’s official residence at Marienborg to raise campaign funds for the party.

Transport Minister Ole Birk Olesen’s position is in danger after it was revealed he misinformed parliament about the dire financial situation of national mail carrier, PostNord.

A new Megafon survey for TV2 showed 56% of the electorate believe the government has underperformed during its first 100 days in power.

Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, threatened to fight Denmark to the ‘bitter end’ in the legal dispute surrounding the government’s decision last year to buy Lockheed Martin’s new F-35 Lightning II combat jets in preference to its own Super Hornets.

Denmark’s industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 5.3 percent month-over-month in January, reversing a 2.3 percent rise in December.

According to the latest Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), Denmark has the most the most advanced digital economy in the EU.

Foreign Affairs/EU

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Poland’s refusal to support their own Donald Tusk for a second term as council president, Thursday, was both ‘sad and regrettable’ but a purely Polish domestic issue.

EU ministers agreed to create a joint military command centre for training missions but Denmark was excluded because of its defence opt-out.

Parliament’s IT department urged members of parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee MPS not to take I-phones, I-pads, or any laptop on a fact-finding trip to Moscow because of the high risk of surveillance or phone tapping from the Russians.

During a fact-finding trip to Italy, Wednesday, Integration Minister Inger Støjberg said she was shocked to discover an ‘explosive rise’ in the number of migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa – she also characterised the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) decision to back Belgium’s right to refuse a humanitarian visa to a Syrian family as good news for both the EU and Denmark.

The government has agreed to send two ‘economic growth advisors’ to India, a sign that rocky relationship between the two countries is slowly recovering

The government could within the very near future be forced to approve the controversial Russian gas pipeline project, Nord Stream 2, which will pass through Danish territorial waters south of Bornholm.

Denmark agreed to contribute over one million US dollars to to a UN team collecting evidence of war crimes in Syria.

In an untraditional move the government offered support for Germany’s pollution of Danish territorial waters.

European online newspaper, The Observer, described leader of the far-right ’New Conservatives’, Pernille Vermlund, who’s been described as ‘xenophobic’, ‘toxic’, ‘rabid’ and ‘extremely dangerous’, as the ‘next Le Pen’.

Minister for Environment and Food Esben Lunde Larsen headed a trade delegation to South Korea to promote Danish food safety.

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Social Affairs

The story of a 14-year-old Danish boy who found the wreckage of a German World War II plane with the remains of the pilot in the cockpit went viral – the boy, who was doing research for a history class, and his father were searching a field with a metal detector when they found bits of a Messerschmitt fighter plane.

In response to a new study by Copenhagen City Hall, showing 44 per cent of kids from an ethnic minority who started school two years ago need extra help to improve their Danish, the government is preparing legislation that would require children to take part in a language programme from the age of two.

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) called for increased focus on the problem of child sex abuse in Greenland.

Business

Toy giant Lego’s profit increased by 6 percent to DKK 37.9bn ($5.4 bn), the highest figure in the company’s 85-year history after selling more than 75 billion parts, 3,700 shapes and launched 335 new sets last year – however, US toy maker Mattel had sales of $5.46bn, staying ahead of Lego as the world’s no.1.

SAS posted a DKK 434m ($6m) loss for the year’s first quarter – the struggling airline is one of 11 European carriers, including Air France/KLM and British Airways, suspected by the EU Competition Commission of coordinating cargo freight prices for six years.

Despite its battle with Danish trade unions over wages, Ryanair continues to expand in this country – the Irish cut-price airline has added six new destinations to its network – two from Copenhagen, to Liverpool and Sevilla, and four from Jutland, to Eindhoven, Gdansk, London, and Berlin.

Novo Nordisk, the world’s biggest insulin maker, said it expects to fall short of its ambitious goal of doubling the number of diabetics it treats by the end of the decade after failing to win key government contracts.

TV2 News reported the government is ready to grant Maersk Oil around DKK5bn in tax and duty concessions over the next five years to keep pumping gas and oil in the North Sea.

Vestas is looking to hire 414 new employees at two factories in Denmark, an announcement that reinforces Denmark’s position as a ‘global leader’ in wind energy production, Climate and energy minister Lars Christian Lilleholt said

Danish power transmission company Energinet.dk. announced an ambitious plan to create an offshore energy hub in the North Sea, alongside Dutch power grid operator TenneT.

As the world celebrated National Women’s Day, Thursday, a new report by DI (The Confederation of Danish industry) showed women have now grabbed 40% of managerial positions at Danish companies in Denmark.

Train travel over the Øresundsbro between Denmark and Sweden has dropped by over 2 million passengers since the introduction of border controls between the two countries last year.

And food giant Danish Crown is aiming to grab a bigger chunk of the Chinese pork market by building a new factory in Shanghai.

And That Was The Week That Was, March 6th – March 12th 2017: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)