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Nordic Council wants to meet Denmark's Integration Minister

Nordic Council MPs are now calling the Danish Minister of Integration, Birthe Rønn Hornbech, in for a meeting. The Citizens' and Consumer Committee have invited the minister to their next meeting to hear more about her interpretation of the Nordic Convention.

Jun 29, 2010
Ville Niinistö

"We do not think that the minister has given a particularly full response and we are now inviting her to meet us to explain more about the Danish practice and Denmark's interpretation of the Nordic Convention," says Ville Niinistö.

Photographer
Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org

The Nordic MPs want to meet Birthe Rønn Hornbech in the wake of cases about Nordic citizens being expelled from Denmark because they need social security benefits.

"The minister wrote in a letter to us that the Danish practice has not changed. We do not think that the minister has given a particularly full response and we are now inviting her to meet us to explain more about the Danish practice and Denmark's interpretation of the Nordic Convention," says Ville Niinistö, chair of the Nordic Council's Citizens' and Consumer Committee.

The Citizens' and Consumer Committee believes that the Danish practice of expelling other Nordic citizens because they need social assistance is essentially in breach of the Convention.

"Being a Nordic citizen should be special. A Swede in Denmark must have the same rights as a Dane in Sweden. If Denmark has a different practice in this area than Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, then this is no longer the case," said Hans Mark Wall, a member of the committee.

The cases of Denmark expelling Nordic citizens have received wide media attention in recent weeks. For example, a pregnant Icelandic woman was asked to leave Denmark in 2009.

The MPs took the decision to invite the Danish minister to their next meeting at the Committee's summer meeting in Greenland on Monday 28 June.

Contacts

Silje Bergum Kinsten
Phone +45 33 96 02 51
Email siki@norden.org

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