The EU hands out thousands of Blue Cards to highly-skilled third country nationals each year, but Denmark does not benefit from any of them.
In 2024, EU countries issued about 78,100 Blue Cards. Named to be the European version of the US Green Card, the blue cards can be obtained in all EU countries, except in Denmark and Ireland, which have opted out.
Blue Cards can be requested by non-EU citizens with a university degree or an equivalent qualification and who have a job offer and a salary meeting the threshold set by the EU country of expected residence. In addition to work and residence rights, they allow the holder to travel to other EU member states for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.
Indian citizens were granted the largest number of EU Blue Cards in 2024 (16,300), ahead of citizens of Russia (6,700, a number that declined from 9,500 in 2023), Türkiye (5,600) and China (4,600).
Almost 1,900 Blue Cards were issued to US citizens, just over 1,200 to Brits and almost 600 to Canadian nationals.
READ ALSO: Which nationalities get the most EU Blue Cards and where do they go?
Germany issued some 56,300 EU Blue Cards in 2024, more than half of the total given out by all countries under the scheme.
Poland (5,900), Hungary (2,900), France (2,800), Spain (2,000), Austria (1,100), Italy (600) and Sweden (62) also issued EU Blue Cards, but due to the opt-out, Denmark’s contribution to the statistic is zero.
Denmark is able to exempt itself from taking part in the Blue Card scheme because it has a series of opt-outs (retsforbehold in Danish) which were negotiated by Copenhagen with the EU. These opt-outs are largely a result of a series of referenda held by Denmark on EU matters over the decades.
When the Danish public voted to reject the Maastricht Treaty in a June 1992 referendum, Copenhagen obtained opt-outs in four sovereign areas: the single currency; justice and police matters; EU citizenship; and defence.
In December 2015, Danes voted no in a referendum on the police and justice opt-out which would have strengthened the country’s cooperation with the European Union on those matters. Concerns about losing sovereignty over immigration were a key factor in the ‘no’ vote. The defence opt-out was repealed in June 2022 following a referendum held in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
READ ALSO: Why does Denmark have three EU ‘opt-outs’ and what do they mean?
The remaining opt-outs mean Denmark does not participate in the Blue Card system. Instead, Denmark uses its own work permit schemes to give access to much-needed foreign labour, according to the Danish parliament’s section of the EU website.
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Unemployment stood at 2.6 percent as of November 2022, the parliamentary information page states. This corresponds to 77,300 people in Denmark who are available for work but currently unemployed. This low unemployment means that many Danish companies are struggle to find both skilled and unskilled labour — a fact recognised on the official page as well as an issue that has been consistently flagged by business organisations.
Nevertheless, non-EU citizens who want to access Denmark’s labour market must do so through the national, not EU-wide work permit schemes.
These include the positive list, pay limit scheme and fast-track scheme, with various different tracks available within the individual schemes.
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