Denmark and Norway to ‘increase cooperation’ on defence

Denmark and Norway announced Tuesday that they would “increase cooperation on defence” against the backdrop of a “challenging” security situation in Europe.

“The two countries need to increase their defence capabilities, and we see the advantages of closer cooperation. This will not only strengthen the defence of both nations, but will also contribute to overall Nordic and Northern European defence capabilities,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement with the Norwegian government.

The two countries said in a joint statement that there was a “need for Europe to assume a stronger responsibility for European defence” and that both countries were “increasing their defence spending substantially”.

Støre met his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen in Oslo to discuss the closer collaboration, with more concrete details to be announced in May.

Denmark-based Greenlanders can’t vote in the Greenlandic election

Greenlanders generally cannot vote in the upcoming Greenlandic election if they live in Denmark, newspaper Jyllands-Posten reports.

That means thousands of Greenlanders are excluded from voting in the upcoming election for the Inatsisartut, the Greenlandic parliament, because they live in Denmark.

The crucial Greenlandic election is scheduled for March 11th.

Up to 15,000 adult Greenlanders currently live in Denmark, Jyllands-Posten writes. There are around 43,000 eligible voters in Greenland.

Rune Stubager, an election researcher at Aarhus University, told the newspaper that the 15,000 votes could have a significant impact on the election but that the nature of that effect “ultimately is speculation.”

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Odense announces measures for students with severe behavioural issues

Odense Municipality is to introduce what it calls an “acute programme” for students with severe behavioural issues.

The city government’s Children and Youth Committee yesterday approved the scheme, which has been arranged in response to a case involving violence between minors at the local Agedrup School.

The violence at the school made national news last year, when parents started a petition demanding the municipality address the problem.

Specifically, the “advanced emergency timeout” programme will involve a team of child care specialists, teachers, and psychologists providing a three-week support intervention for students who are abusive or violent, local media TV 2 Fyn reports.

Odense Municipality’s costs for managing these students will be 5.7 million kroner per year, according to the media.

Denmark to move forward with plans to ban smartphones at schools

Smartphones will be banned at schools under new legislation proposed in Denmark, Education Minister Mattias Tesfaye confirmed yesterday.

“We have decided to give the government’s support to this idea and that’s why we are starting to prepare a change in the law,” Tesfaye said to newspaper Politiken.

The details of the law have not yet been signed off but Tesfaye said “mobile phones and personal tablets will not be allowed at school, neither during break times nor during lessons”.

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