Denmark: Status for employees after Brexit
Senior Associate
Denmark
I'm an associate in our international HR Services group in Denmark specialising in labour and employment law issues, both nationally and internationally.
Partner
Denmark
I'm a partner and head of our international HR Services group in Denmark and a member of our international Trade Secrets Protection group. I've spent over 20 years specialising in labour and employment law, court and arbitration cases, trade secrets, company law and M&A.
On Friday 31 January 2020, the UK finally left the EU.
UK's exit from the EU does not result in any immediate changes, as a so-called transition period has been agreed during which UK will continue to comply with the current EU legislation. This means that British citizens, who are legally residing in Denmark, maintain the right to reside during the transition period, and the same applies for EU citizens working in UK.
The transition period will as planned run until and including 31 December 2020. The period may, however, be extended by 1 or 2 years. After the expiry of the transition period, UK will formally be regarded as a third country and all British citizens must be regarded as third country nationals.
After the expiry of the transition period, EU citizens and British citizens residing in a different member country that the one in which they are citizens, will - pursuant to the Withdrawal Agreement - be entitled to remain in that country, if they fulfill the requirements of the EU legislation on free movement before the expiry of the transition period. These requirements will e.g. be fulfilled, if the EU citizens and the British citizens are employees in the EU legal sense. The right to be covered by the Withdrawal Agreement applies as long as the requirements for being covered are fulfilled. If you are covered by the Withdrawal Agreement, you will have rights which more or less correspond to the rights applying today.
The Danish government is working on an application procedure for British citizens with a new type of residence documents which must document the right of residence pursuant to the Withdrawal Agreement. Further information on the new procedure can be found on the website of the Ministry of Immigration and Integration
If you do not fulfill the requirements for being covered by the Withdrawal Agreement at the expiry of the transition period, your situation will depend on how the country in question decides to treat EU citizens in UK and third country nationals in the member countries, respectively. Bird & Bird recommends employers to keep updated regarding the development on a regular basis on Bird & Bird's Brexit site. You can also read more about possible labour and employment consequences related to Brexit in our newsletters here and here.
