Read the full story in The Copenhagen Post. 

EUDO-CITIZENSHIP country expert for Denmark Eva Ersbøll welcomes the package of changes, most of which were already announced by the current government in its 2011 platform. The new legislation will open the gate to naturalisation to a considerable number of foreigners who have been prevented from acquiring Danish citizenship over the past seven years. While the reform is overall positive, a number of important points are still to be specified, such as whether the new requirements for naturalisation will be adopted by law or through successive political agreements. It is to be hoped that the government’s initial proposal to offer more legal certainty still stands and that subsequent changes in citizenship laws will be delegated to administrative authorities. The current naturalisation procedure, in which citizenship is granted to individual applicants, presents major legal problems. While the Ministry of Justice committed itself to bringing application processing time down to seven months by 2014, a subsequent period of five months will apply before the new Bill can be adopted in Parliament, thus mechanically increasing the overall processing time to one year.

Lastly, other important issues are still to be addressed and it is therefore highly recommendable that Denmark – like many other European countries – establishes a Citizenship Commission charged with the task of preparing a coherent citizenship law reform.