Minister of Industry and Commerce Morten Bødskov (S) is not in favor of the state directly supporting private companies. Nevertheless, the government has allocated 500 million kroner for state support for the Finance Act for 2025. He said this in an interview with Berlingske on Monday. The Finance Act will be presented later this week.
In order to avoid a relocation to the USA and China - which are spending large sums of money to boost green industries - the EU has allowed its member states to give industries state support in 2024 and 2025.
The Danish government will go to the negotiations in the EU with a desire to phase out this support. But the Minister of Industry and Commerce cannot deny that the opposite may be necessary. The government has to deal with reality, the newspaper says.
- Companies are looking carefully at where they can get support to expand their production. And we are interested in those jobs being created in Esbjerg, Aalborg and Kalundborg – not in the USA or China, Bødskov tells Berlingske.
For example, the Minister of Business and Industry receives several inquiries from companies that are considering moving to the USA to take part in the state aid from the American package Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), he says.
He believes that the dynamics of global competition are distorted by this kind of support - but he does not expect that either China or the USA intend to drop it in the near future.
Therefore, he also believes that it is "difficult to say" whether the state aid in the EU is temporary, even though it is Denmark's business policy starting point.
Danish Business and Industry views the initiatives positively
The new half billion DKK will be targeted, among other things, at the wind turbine industry and power-to-x companies. For example, through companies such as Siemens Gamesa, Niebuhr Gears and Advanced Surface Plating, which have all received support this year.
In addition to the new half billion, there is a residual pool of 157 million. DKK from the scheme in 2024, which will be carried over into the new year, writes Berlingske.
- It is the green, Danish production jobs of the future that are at stake. We are being pressured from several different corners of the world - unfortunately, several countries have become major consumers of the state support tool. And we will have to keep up, even if it is not the tool I first reach for. The government's green investment support scheme is a help to maintain Denmark's green production, says Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities, Lars Aagaard, in a press release.
The Danish Business Organisation believes that the money for the green industry is a positive initiative. The most important thing, however, is to raise the competitiveness of companies, it says.
- What really matters for the competitiveness of companies is a modern and progressive business and industrial policy. We therefore hope that this is the starting point for focusing on our competitiveness, says Ulrich Bang, deputy director of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, in a written comment to Ritzau.
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