National news at last as job centres get downsized

If you looked away from news of tariffs this week in Denmark and Greenland before that, you may have noted a huge reform to the job centre system, through which local authorities approve unemployment benefits.

The reform, announced by the government with the support of four opposition parties on Wednesday, means the existing system is set to undergo major downsizing.

Under current rules, people who receive unemployment or sick pay benefits in the form of payments such as dagpenge and kontanthjælp are required to attend regular job centre meetings with employment consultants, alongside other obligations.

Local municipalities, kommuner in Danish, are responsible for the operation of the job centres and determining whether individual eligibility criteria are fulfilled for the benefits.

But municipalities will be given greater freedom under the reform, meaning they will no longer be obliged to run job centres at all and will have more freedom to set their own frameworks for approving unemployment benefits.

Up to 2.7 billion kroner will be saved by the reform, slashing government spending on the area by over a quarter, according to the text of the agreement.

It will also mean far fewer interviews arranged by both job centres and a-kasser, the semi-private insurance funds which provide access to dagpenge unemployment benefits.

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Some 500,000 interviews in total will be cut meaning 3,500 fewer consultants will be needed, according to a government estimate.

Describing the changes as a “huge reform”, Employment Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said it was “not easy” for “politicians to stop micromanaging from Christiansborg [parliament, ed.].”

“But that’s what we’re doing and I’m pleased about that,” she said.

But elements of the plan have been heavily criticised by two opposition parties, the left-wing Red Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) and the centre-left Socialist People’s Party (SF), who say elements of the plan will put younger people who are out of work at a far greater disadvantage because spending on youth initiatives has been reduced overall.

SF has also criticised the likely reduced role of a-kasser, which can provide advice and courses related to areas such as job searching, applications and interview technique.

Because municipalities can now close job centres and organise approval of unemployment benefits individually, results could vary in different parts of Denmark according to experts.

“Municipalities are currently required to have a job centre, although these already vary somewhat in structure,” Flemming Larsen, Professor at the Department of Politics and Society at Aalborg University, told news wire Ritzau in a written comment earlier this week.

“After the reform, municipalities will be free to organise the system themselves, but the task remains essentially the same,” he said.

"If nothing else, this can signal a willingness to rethink the approach to employment support," he added.

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Human rights organisations receive setback in bid to stop indirect arms exports to Israel

Efforts by four human rights organisations to stop Denmark’s indirect arms exports to Israel were denied on Friday by the Østre Landsret high court, in a ruling on whether the organisations can proceed with a lawsuit against the Danish state.

To be able to sue the government, the NGOs must have retlig interesse or ‘legal standing’ in the question under Danish law. The high court ruled they do not have this in its decision on Friday.

The lawsuit was filed against the Danish Foreign Ministry and the National Police (Rigspolitiet) by Amnesty International Denmark, Oxfam Denmark, ActionAid Denmark, and Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq.

The organisations want to halt Denmark’s export of components used in F-35 fighter jets to Israel and argue that they are directly affected by the situation in Gaza.

“We have colleagues working in Gaza who are affected by the intense warfare Israel has conducted for the past year and a half,” Annette Stubkjær Rimmer, political adviser with Amnesty, said to news wire Ritzau prior to the court ruling on Friday.

“Our mandate at Amnesty is clearly to protect human rights. And we are seeing clear violations of those rights in Gaza,” she said.

“We do not think Denmark should contribute to or be complicit in this by exporting weapons components for Israeli fighter jets,” she said.

Danish media outlets Danwatch and Information revealed in 2023 that Israel's F-35s were equipped with parts made by the Danish company Terma, which has the necessary permits from Danish authorities for the supply.

The exports are not direct but part of a chain. The Danish permits cover exports related to Denmark’s F-35 programme with the United States, and the US allows the export of certain F-35 aircraft to Israel, which are used by Israel for strikes in Gaza.

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"Amnesty International has been working for several years to rally support for the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to ensure that states' arms trading is not used to commit human rights violations," the secretary general of the Danish branch of Amnesty International, Vibe Klarup, said in a statement.

Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen argued in October that Denmark's participation in the F-35 programme was "crucial for our security and our relations with our main allies".

Amnesty International last year said it had concluded Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The Danish lawsuit was filed in March 2024, on the heels of a similar suit filed in the Netherlands by a coalition of humanitarian organisations.

But Denmark’s judicial system won't be ruling on the allegations, according to the 70-page conclusion issued by the High Court. 

To have ‘legal standing’ or retlig interesse in question, they must be directly affected. Three of the organisations operate in Gaza.

While they are “undoubtedly affected to a very significant degree” by the situation, their circumstances are no different from other residents, associations, organisations or businesses in the area, the judges wrote.

As a result, the NGOs were found not to have met the threshold, which is the assessment of whether they have a legal interest in the case.

Judges have allowed similar cases to proceed in two other Western European countries, according to Amnesty International.

In the Netherlands, a court of appeal has ruled to halt direct arms exports to Israel, though not indirect exports. In the UK, a court is due to hold hearings in May on questions including the indirect export of components for the F-35.

The four organisations confirmed on Friday that the High Court ruling had already been appealed to the Supreme Court.