05/08/2023
MORE TROUBLE IN DENMARK? Copenhagen City Council votes to boycott Rockwool
From Copenhagen newspaper Ekstra Bladet, May 4, 2023
The Danish company Rockwool is very much out of favour in the country's most populous municipality.
On Thursday evening, a majority of the City Council at Copenhagen City Hall voted in favour of boycotting the company and other Danish companies doing business in Russia.
This is according to TV 2 Kosmopol, as does Jens-Kristian Lütken, Mayor of Employment and Integration, in a press release to Ekstra Bladet.
"It is deeply reprehensible that Rockwool continues to produce and make money in Russia. We need to put huge economic pressure on Russia, which most global companies have been part of, even if it has led to huge economic losses.
"Copenhagen has taken in more than 3000, displaced persons from Ukraine, and therefore it is quite natural that we should also help put pressure on the country that is responsible for the fact that we are now receiving people fleeing," says Jens-Kristian Lütken.
This means that the proposal will now be handed over to the financial administration in the municipality, which will make a plan for how it can be ensured that Rockwool's products, which mainly produce stone wool, will no longer be included in municipal bids.
The proposal was made by the Danish Liberal Party and comes because Rockwool has continued its activities in Russia.
"As a municipality, we should not support a company that makes money in a country that has plunged Europe into war and driven millions to flee.
"The war in Ukraine is not a distant conflict, but also something we feel very much here in Copenhagen. Therefore, we have a moral responsibility to break off cooperation with those who have strong economic interests in a hostile country.
Several parties against
The parties that voted for the proposal were the Unity List, the Socialist People's Party, the Alternative, the Danish People's Party and the Radical Left.
That leaves three parties represented at City Hall.
Both the Conservatives, the Liberal Alliance and the Social Democrats voted against the proposal.
According to TV 2 Kosmopol, the downward thumb in the Social Democrats is due to doubts about whether the legal basis for such a boycott is in place.
"As long as a company complies with Danish law and does not conflict with our clauses, we must not boycott them as a municipality. This proposal, which is very sympathetic, is to show the flag, and that can be important as long as you do not pull the wool over people's eyes, Lars Weiss, group chairman of the Social Democrats, said at the meeting, according to the media.
Scandal upon scandal
There is nothing new in Rockwool ending up in the topple.
In a number of articles, Ekstra Bladet and Danwatch have described how Rockwool has made good money from Russia's war machine.
In 2016, the Danish company boasted that it was behind the isolation of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Even after Russia invaded Ukraine, Rockwool boasted of having been in charge of isolating the headquarters of the Russian Navy.
Earlier this year, the company was scrutinized by the Danish Business Authority, which investigated whether Rockwool violated the sanctions imposed in response to the Russian aggression, but ended up exonerating the company.
According to TV 2 Kosmopol, a boycott would result in a number of demands on companies that are in play for a municipal bid.
This will be done by the municipality already stating in the bid documents that, for example, contractors may not use subcontractors who are active in Russia.
One could imagine that this will affect a large number of companies in the construction industry, which generally often use stone wool from Rockwool.
