The Copenhagen Post 03Feb - 09Feb 2012

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3-9 February 2012

Wondercool: February’s fab festival. Special section

3 - 9 February 2012

Taxing the risk: Debate over THEExpat Sporting POST COPENHAGEN SPORCPHPOST.DK TIN financial transaction tax Sunday SUNDAY G takes off INSIDE!

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Rock ✽

Jazz ✽

Fashion ✽

Design ✽

Cooking ✽

Art ✽

Architecture ✽

INSIDE

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3 - 9 February 2012 | Vol 15 Issue 05

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The poor are always with us, but their numbers are growing thanks to policies that started under the centre-left governments of the 1990s

Ravaged by fire, KB-Hallen hopes to emerge as a modern event facility. But a looming historic preservation could force them back to 1938

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NEWS

What can we do for you? Mayor Frank Jensen calls on Microsoft employees on the first leg of a tour to learn how the city can preen itself for foreigners

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SPORT

The surge is golden for handballers, who mount Europe’s throne after nearly crashing out of the European Championship in Serbia early doors

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Euro-sceptics resisting fiscal discipline compact PETER STANNERS

BUSINESS

A matter of apples and oranges? Food price comparison exposing high Danish prices is unfair, businesses charge. Let’s have more competition, consumer advocates fire back

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Straying from legal limits on state spending would result in fines under new EU budget discipline deal. Critics argue against tying the country into the “bourgeois politics of austerity”

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HIS MONDAY European leaders took a step toward establishing a closer European financial union with strict fines for countries who do not take adequate steps to restrain their spending. While the treaty is only compulsory for the 17 Eurozone members, Denmark and seven other EU countries not using the single currency have decided to sign up for the new regulations.

“I think the fiscal compact that was agreed yesterday is sensible for Denmark because it creates security about the European and Danish economies,” the Europe minister, Nicolai Wammen, wrote on his Facebook page. “Seventy percent of Danish exports are to EU countries, and almost 500,000 workplaces are dependent precisely on these exports. Therefore, the deal is of great importance for Danish businesses and workers.” The new treaty, the fiscal compact, was designed to prevent Europe from developing another debt crisis by forcing countries to maintain stricter budgetary discipline. The main points of the treaty limit countries to a structural deficit of no more than 0.5 percent of GDP and accumulated debt of no more than 60 percent of GDP.

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Countries that break these limits, and do not take the necessary action to bring their spending under control, can be fined up to 0.1 percent of their GDP by the EU courts. Countries using the euro will pay the fines to the bailout fund, the EFSF, while non-euro countries will pay to the common EU budget. The new budgetary rules have to be enshrined in law by the parliaments of the countries that have signed up – so far all the EU member states bar the UK and Czech Republic. The law will probably pass in Denmark after opposition parties Venstre and Konservative said they would support the coalition government. But three parties – the far-left government support party Enhedslisten, the Euro-sceptic Danish People’s Party and the libertarian Liberal Alliance –

are opposed to joining the fiscal compact. “There is no way we could vote in favour of it,” Nikolaj Villumsen, an Enhedslisten MP, told Politiken newspaper. “The financial compact forces countries to adopt a bourgeois politics of austerity that will just make the crisis worse, both in Denmark and in Europe. Helle Thorning-Schmidt was voted for by Danes on a platform of creating jobs, but this pact would cut back spending.” Both Enhedslisten and Dansk Folkeparti also argue that Denmark loses sovereignty by having the EU watch over its budget, meaning that Danish participation can only be approved via a referendum.

Europact continues on page 7

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