The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), in a judgment published on Thursday 22 December (case C-279/21), ruled that the Danish legislation, by making family reunification conditional on passing an examination on knowledge of the Danish language, constitutes a “new illegal restriction”.
The case concerns a Turkish worker who arrived in Denmark in 2015. The latter submitted an application for a residence permit to the Danish authorities for family reunification with his spouse, a Turkish national who has held a residence permit since 1979.
In 2016, the Danish authorities rejected the Turkish worker’s application on the grounds that his spouse had not passed a Danish language test, despite working in the country for 36 years and already had his four children and other family members under family reunification.
The Turkish worker lodged an appeal. The national court turned to the Court of Justice of the EU to find out whether the Danish rules introduced a new restriction and whether these rules could be justified to ensure successful integration.
The Court finds that the tightening of the Danish legislation is indeed a new restriction. This new restriction can be justified on the basis of an overriding reason of general interest. However, according to the Court, the Danish legislation does not take into account, among other things, the integration capacities of the spouse. The Danish legislation therefore goes “beyond what is necessary to attain the objective pursued”, it says.
To access the judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/4rw (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)