The European citizenship convention is at the centre of a new clash in Copenhagen, as Denmark’s Liberal Party (Venstre) says the country must be ready to leave the treaty if it cannot be changed before the next general election.
What the European citizenship convention does in Denmark
The treaty in question is the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Nationality, often referred to in Denmark as the citizenship convention. It sets common rules on who can become a citizen and under which conditions a state may deprive a person of citizenship.
For Denmark, one key point is the rule that citizenship can only be withdrawn from double citizens if their crime causes “serious damage to the vital interests of the state”. In practice, this has limited the government’s ability to revoke Danish passports from people with dual nationality who have committed serious offences but fall short of this very high threshold.
Successive Danish governments have maintained a strict immigration and citizenship policy while remaining bound by this convention and other international agreements. The current centrist SVM government – Social Democrats, Venstre and Moderates – has tried to change the rules from within the Council of Europe system, but so far without success.
Venstre’s new line on citizenship and criminal offenders
In an interview with the daily Berlingske, Venstre leader and Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen calls his party’s position a “break with tradition”. For more than two decades, Venstre has described its approach to immigration as “firm but fair”, insisting that Denmark should respect international conventions while keeping a restrictive line.
Now, the party leader argues that there have been too many cases where foreign nationals or double citizens convicted of serious crimes – such as violent assaults or rape – could not be stripped of their Danish citizenship and expelled. According to Poulsen, this undermines trust in the legal system and in Denmark’s ability to uphold its strict immigration policy.
Venstre’s message is therefore twofold. The party still wants the government to negotiate changes to the European citizenship convention, so that Denmark has more room to withdraw citizenship in serious cases. But if this cannot be achieved before the next election, Poulsen says Denmark should be ready to withdraw from the convention altogether.
The new line places Venstre much closer to other parties in the blue bloc, such as the Denmark Democrats, the Liberal Alliance, the Conservatives and the Danish People’s Party, which have already argued that Denmark should leave the convention.
European citizenship convention and broader convention debates
The debate over the European citizenship convention comes on top of a longer Danish discussion about international human rights and refugee conventions, including the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Refugee Convention. Several right-of-centre parties have questioned whether these agreements give foreign nationals too strong protection against expulsion.
Supporters of Denmark’s current commitments argue that the country’s international credibility depends on respecting conventions that it has freely joined. They warn that leaving one treaty could make it easier for governments to question others, gradually weakening the European human rights system.
In this context, the citizenship convention plays a specific role. Unlike the broader human rights instruments, it focuses on nationality law and the loss of citizenship. Some Danish politicians argue that, because many other European states have not signed or ratified it, Denmark should not feel bound by stricter rules than its neighbours.
Strains inside the SVM government and signals of a campaign
Venstre’s new stance has created visible tension inside the SVM government. Foreign Minister and Moderates leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen has publicly expressed surprise, stressing that such a move would be “without precedent” at a time when the international legal order is under pressure from wars and geopolitical tensions.
According to Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark has so far tried to act together with other EU countries that share a restrictive approach to immigration, working for stricter rules while remaining within the framework of international law. A unilateral Danish withdrawal from the citizenship convention would break with that strategy and could signal that Copenhagen is prepared to move alone.
Political commentators in Denmark see the dispute as a sign that the three governing parties are already positioning themselves for the next election. Venstre’s harder line on citizenship is widely interpreted as a way to reconnect with voters in the blue bloc and to show distance from Social Democratic and Moderate positions on international law.
At the same time, the Social Democrats are seeking to sharpen their own profile on welfare, labour and climate, while the Moderates present themselves as the guarantor of international cooperation and legal stability. The open disagreement over the convention hints at a government moving from crisis management back into campaign mode.
What an exit could mean for Denmark and Europe
If Denmark were to leave the European citizenship convention, the government would regain more national discretion over when and how to strip people of citizenship, especially in cases involving double nationals convicted of serious crime.
However, leaving the convention would not remove all constraints. Denmark would still be bound by the European Convention on Human Rights and by general principles of international law, which protect against arbitrary deprivation of citizenship and statelessness. Any broader weakening of safeguards would likely trigger legal challenges in Danish and European courts.
For the Nordic region and the European Union, a Danish withdrawal would add to a wider discussion about how far member states can go in tightening immigration and citizenship rules while remaining part of a shared legal space. It would also raise questions about the balance between national control and common standards in an era marked by security concerns, polarised politics and upcoming elections across Europe.
For now, the SVM government officially continues to work on reforming the convention from within. But Venstre’s new position means that withdrawal is no longer a theoretical option. It has become a real political scenario that could shape both Denmark’s domestic debate and its place in the European legal order in the coming years.
