PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Socialdemokraterne) used her weekly press meeting today to announce that her government was drawing up a new job stimulus package.
“The government is going to increase its efforts to improve competition and create employment,” Thorning-Schmidt said, adding that ministers have until March to come up with policies to reinvigorate the economy.
“We need to find the right proposals to improve our competitiveness and create jobs. It’s a challenge that we are going to take particularly seriously. But I also want to underline that there aren’t any shortcuts and we need to find proposals that work.”
Thorning-Schmidt said she had not ruled out implementing tax cuts for businesses, but that there was no sure-fire way to reinvigorate the economy.
“There is a lot of focus on the affect taxes and fees have on competition […] But while it is easy to promise to cut taxes, it is much harder to finance them.”
Jyllands-Posten newspaper last week already reported that the government was likely to embark on a new economic direction in light of poor polls and perceived dissatisfaction with Thorning-Schmidt’s leadership.
Last year’s job package aimed at finding work for long-term unemployed,who stand to lose their dagpenge benefits after a reform took affect this month, has also been criticised for coming up with far too few jobs for the estimated 23,000 people that will be affected by the change.
