Cheers erupted in Mjølnerparken – an area in northern Copenhagen that was classified as a “ghetto” in 2018 – when the verdict was read out on Thursday morning.
Here, residents interpreted the outcome as a direct decision, but it turned out not to be quite that simple.
Eddie Omar Rosenberg Khawaja is the residents' lawyer and had hoped that the ruling would be as clearly worded as an opinion that came from the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice in February.
“A victory”
The Advocate General then ruled that it is “directly discriminatory” to evaluate areas based on ethnicity.
Of course, I would have liked it to be a clearer conclusion, but I don't think I could have gotten a clearer guiding verdict, says Rosenberg Khawaja.
The EU Court of Justice therefore does not rule on whether the "ghetto law" is incompatible with the EU directive on equal treatment, but establishes which criteria should be used when the Court of Appeal examines whether the law constitutes discrimination.
Frederik Waage is a professor of administrative law at the University of Southern Denmark and sees the ruling as a victory for those who have been pushing the issue and believes that it will make it difficult for other countries to enact laws based on the Danish "ghetto law".
I want to say to Sweden and other countries that it is very difficult to introduce such a system, because it has been made completely clear here that it is an EU legal problem.
“Of course boring”
Denmark's former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M), one of the architects behind the so-called "ghetto law", is disappointed with today's EU ruling.
It is of course sad that there is now a preliminary legal opinion from the European Court of Justice that questions some of the criteria that form the basis for the designation of these areas, he tells TV2.
The law means that an area cannot have more than 50 percent “non-Western” residents. If an area has been listed as a “ghetto” – or “parallel society”, as the authorities now call it – for four years, the landlord must either choose to convert, demolish or sell the homes, which may mean residents are forced to move.
It was the Østre landsret, a Danish court of appeal, that had turned to the European Court of Justice for clarification.
