Finance Minister Bjarne Corydon says that the problem for some 16,000 people, who risk falling foul of the reduction in the unemployment benefit period in 2013, has been solved.

“As far as the government is concerned we have a fully covered solution to the problem we have been discussing in Denmark for some time; that an extraordinarily large group of people risk dropping out of the benefit system,” Corydon says.

He adds that an agreement reached between the government, the Confederation of Danish Employers, Local Government Denmark and the Danish Regions is “unique” in earmarking 12,500 jobs for the long-term unemployed whose benefits fall away on July 1, 2013.

“We are reserving the job options on the labour market for those Danes who risk dropping out of the unemployment benefit system,” he says.

The Red Greens say that today’s agreement is not enough and are calling for further budgetary measures.

But the new Socialist People’s Party Leader Annette Vilhelmsen, who took part in the negotiations, says that the budget will not be containing any new initiatives on the unemployment benefit front.

The Confederation of Danish Employers CEO Jørgen Neergaard Larsen says it would be “absurd” to give in to the Red Greens by introducing further relaxations in the 2013 budget.

“The agreement we have entered into is part of the implementation of the unemployment benefit system that has been politically agreed. If it suddenly turns out to be part of something completely different, the basis for the agreement disappears. But I am not afraid of that,” Neergaard Larsen says.

FACEBOOK – Follow Politiken’s News in English