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Criticism of Danish interpretation

Jan 11, 2005

The strict Danish interpretation of EU regulations about freedom of movement runs counter to the country’s own stated policy of favouring closer Nordic integration, the Danish Red-Green Alliance told Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten. The Integration Ministry interprets the EU regulations to mean that married couples who move back to the country after having lived in Sweden to get round the Danish regulations for aliens must have had a job in Sweden before they can be granted residence in Denmark. In a number of cases, Danish citizens who have kept jobs in Denmark while staying in Sweden and are being refused permission to move back to Denmark.

Line Barfod of the Red-Green Alliance points out that in its overall aims for the Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers 2005 the government stated that it will promote freedom of movement and support cross-border integration.

“They are doing the opposite of what they promised at the Nordic Council Session in Stockholm two months ago. They are so terribly afraid that a single person with a different skin colour comes to the country that they don’t care about integration in the Øresund Region, something business would also like to see,” she said.

Peter Skaarup of the Danish People’s Party takes the opposite view and thinks that Denmark may need to opt out of the Nordic agreements if the traffic over the Øresund and around the Danish rules does not stop.