The Ghetto Case Returns to Denmark

New EU Law Research Seminar.

The so called ’Ghetto Package’ dating back to 2018 has placed Denmark at the vanguard of ethno-nationalist law-making in Europe. The legislative package introduced new provisions in the Danish Law on Public Housing, which required evictions of tenants in public housing units in so called ‘hard ghetto areas’, later renamed ‘transformation areas’. Such areas are designated by socioeconomic criteria and where, in addition, more than 50% of the population is classified as a ‘non-Western immigrants and their descendants’. The ‘non-Western’ criteria transcend citizenship and someone who is born in Denmark and has Danish citizenship can be designated as a ‘non-Western immigrant and their descendants’. What matters, according to the preparatory works of the package, is ethnicity.

Several of the evicted tenants initiated proceedings challenging the use of the ‘non-Western’ criterion in the Law on Public Housing on the grounds that it constituted discrimination based on ethnicity as regulated in national and EU law. This litigation resulted in several court cases. One of the cases, Slagelse Almennyttige Boligselskab, was sent from the Østre Landsret to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) who gave a ruling in December 2025 (C-417/23) holding that the Law on Public Housing may constitute discrimination but left most of the assessment to Østre Landsret (who has not yet issued a ruling). The other case, Nøjsomhedsvej (U.2022.3593Ø), was held in first instance to not constitute discrimination but was appealed to the Supreme Court of Denmark who will give a ruling by mid-November. The ruling of the Supreme Court will have to consider the ruling by the CJEU and it will be binding on Østre Landsret. In other words, the Ghetto Case has returned to Denmark.  

In this seminar moderated by Greta Spanò and organized by the EU law Research Group at the Faculty of Law Hanna Eklund, Stine Jørgensen and Eddie Omar Rosenberg Khawaja will discuss some of the many important issues triggered by this litigation. What happens when the Ghetto Case returns from the CJEU in Luxembourg to Denmark? How did the Supreme Court interpret the CJEU’s ruling? What do these cases mean for the right to equal treatment in Denmark and Europe? How should discrimination based on race be strategically litigated in European and national courts?

Bios

Eddie Omar Rosenberg Khawaja is a highly recognized lawyer based in Copenhagen and who represented all the litigants of Nøjsomhed and some of the litigants in Slagelse Almennyttige Boligselskab.

Hanna Eklund is Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen and has written about the CJEU’s ruling in C-417/23, Slagelse Almennyttige Boligselskab in the Common Market Law Review, as well as in Verfassungsblog.

Stine Jørgensen is Professor in Discrimination Law at the University of Copenhagen and is currently working on what constitutes a ground in the context of the right to non-discrimination.

Greta Spanò is a Research Assistant at Mobile, University of Copenhagen, and an expert in EU law.