Frederiksen comments on ‘hybrid war’ at EU summit, state to get more powers to collect debt abroad, night shifts increase headache risk and more news from Denmark this Thursday.
Denmark warns EU over Russia ‘hybrid war’ as leaders talk defence
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen yesterday urged Europe to step up its response to Russia’s “hybrid war”, as she hosted EU leaders for defence talks held under tight security following the mystery drone flights that disrupted the country last week.
Thousands of police were on alert, civilian drones banned and reinforcements deployed from NATO allies to help protect the summit at the grand Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen.
“I hope that everybody recognises now that there is a hybrid war,” Frederiksen said according to news agency AFP.
Suspicions have pointed at Russia but so far no culprit has been definitively named.
Nonetheless the drone incidents have sharpened the focus on chinks in Europe’s defences, after high-profile air incursions by Moscow in Poland and Estonia.
“We face the greatest security challenge since the end of the Second World War,” Frederiksen said.
EU leaders in the Danish capital were pressing to flesh out details for priority defence projects, including a “drone wall” aimed at countering Russia’s threat.
“It’s a pattern, and this pattern is coming from Russia,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told reporters.
“Russia tries to test us, but Russia also tries to sow division and anxiety in our societies. We will not let this happen.”
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Debt agency gets new powers to collect debt from foreigners
The Danish Debt Collection Agency (Gældsstyrelsen) is set to gain new powers to collect unpaid child and spousal support from citizens living abroad, the Tax Ministry has announced in a statement.
That follows Denmark’s accession to the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, which expands cooperation with foreign authorities.
We’ll have more detail on this in an article on our website today.
Night workers at higher risk of headache, report concludes
A report by a national centre for working environments, Det Nationale Forskningscenter for Arbejdsmiljø (NFA), has concluded people who work night shifts are more likely to get headaches than if they worked during the day.
The study is based on 522 women who work at Danish hospitals and switched between night and day shifts over a two-week period.
Headaches were reported 28 percent of the time during spells of night shifts and 22 percent of the time when the women were on day shifts.
“We have evidence of a link between night shifts and headaches,” NFA senior researcher Kirsten Nabe-Nielsen told news wire Ritzau.
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Football club fined for homophobic fan chants
Football team AGF Aarhus is paying the price for the actions of one of its fans, receiving a fine of 50,000 kroner after the fan shouted homophobic slurs in a recent cup match against Hillerød.
The disciplinary body for Danish professional football issued the fine after the referee included the incident in their match report. The homophobic shouts occurred while a Hillerød player was receiving treatment for an injury.
“The referee further stated that this led the referee team to instruct the stadium announcer to broadcast over the loudspeakers that homophobic chants would not be tolerated. This caused a 30-second interruption to the match, the ruling says,” it said.
The referee also stated that AGF then placed three stewards in the stand, after which no further incidents were recorded for the remainder of the game.
AGF have two weeks to appeal the ruling.