Possibility of Reopening Certain Cases on the Forfeiture of Danish citizenship

Based on a judgment passed by the Court of Justice of the European Union on 25 April 2024 in the cases C-684/22 to C-686/22, the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration has assessed that the ministry, when assessing the forfeiture of Danish citizenship as a result of being granted a foreign citizenship under the previously applicable section 7 of the Danish Nationality Act, must include a number of additional factors to carry out an individual assessment of the effects in relation to EU law of a forfeiture of Danish citizenship and thus of EU citizenship.

Such an assessment has not previously been made in cases in which a forfeiture assessment has been made pursuant to the previously applicable section 7 of the Danish Nationality Act.

In the future, in all cases when the forfeiture of Danish citizenship also entails the forfeiture of EU citizenship, the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration will thus assess whether the effects in relation to EU law of the forfeiture of EU citizenship are proportional to the forfeiture.

The Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration also assesses that there is a need to amend the Danish Nationality Act to ensure clarity about the citizens' legal position.

Please consult the Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration's briefing to the Danish Parliament, Folketinget,  on the judgment and its legal effects here UUI Almdel Bilag 145 Notat om opfølgning på EUDomstolens dompdf (ft.dk).

Possibility of reopening a case

The judgment has legal effects from the commencement date of the interpreted rule, Article 20 of the TFEU, effective on 1 November 1993.

Former Danish citizens who were granted a foreign citizenship in the period between 1 November 1993 and before 1 September 2015, when section 7 of the Danish Nationality Act was repealed, and who thus lost their Danish citizenship, and who received a decision from the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration on forfeiture of citizenship, whereby they also lost their EU citizenship, can request that the ministry should reopen their case.