Opinion of the Advocate General in the case C-417/23

PRESS RELEASE No 18/25 Luxembourg, 13 February 2025 Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-417/23 | Slagelse Almennyttige Boligselskab, Afdeling Schackenborgvænge AG Ćapeta: The Danish legislation on public housing in transformation areas constitutes direct discrimination based on an ethnic criterion The Danish legislation on public housing distinguishes between several types of neighbourhoods with unfavourable socio-economic situations in terms of their levels of unemployment, crime, education, and income. The areas in which, in addition to an unfavourable socio-economic situation, the proportion of immigrants from non-Western countries and their descendants has exceeded 50% for the last five years have then been categorised as ‘transformation areas’ (formerly known as ‘hard ghettos’). The law requires the public housing associations owning such areas to draw up a development plan setting out how the proportion of public housing units in the transformation areas is to be reduced to 40% by 1 January 2030. This may include the sale of properties to private developers, demolition, or conversion of family housing into housing for young people. In such cases, the leases of the previous tenants must be terminated. Tenants who found themselves in such a situation in two transformations areas — the Schackenborgvænge estate in Slagelse, and Mjølnerparken estate in Copenhagen — are challenging the legality of development plans adopted on the basis of the...