Judgment of the Court of Justice Second Chamber, 22 December 2022, Udlændingenævnet Language test for foreign nationals, C-279/21

• Date: 22 December 2022
• Year: 2022

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5(3) thereof, the fact remains that the Member States, including their courts, must ensure that

collective agreements which authorise differences in treatment with regard to basic working and

employment conditions ensure, inter alia, the overall protection of temporary agency workers.

Accordingly, those collective agreements must be amenable to effective judicial review in order to

determine whether the social partners have complied with their obligation to respect that protection.

VII. INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS: INTERPRETATION OF AN INTERNATIONAL

AGREEMENT

Judgment of the Court of Justice (Second Chamber), 22 December 2022,

Udlændingenævnet (Language test for foreign nationals), C-279/21

Link to the full text of the judgment

Reference for a preliminary ruling – EEC-Turkey Association Agreement – Article 9 – Decision No 1/80 –

Article 10(1) – Article 13 – Standstill clause – Family reunification – National rule introducing new more

restrictive conditions in the area of family reunification for spouses of Turkish nationals who hold a

permanent residence permit in the Member State concerned – Requirement that Turkish workers

successfully take a test demonstrating a certain level of knowledge of the official language of that Member

State – Justification – Objective of ensuring successful integration

Y is a Turkish national who has resided in Denmark since 1979. He has held a permanent residence

permit in that Member State since 1985. X, his w ife, entered Denmark in 2015 and, the same year,

submitted an application for a residence permit there for the purpose of family reunification with her

spouse.

The Udlændingestyrelsen (Immigration Office, Denmark) rejected that application on the ground that

Y had not demonstrated that he had fulfilled the condition, laid down by the national legislation at

issue in the main proceedings, of having successfully taken a Danish language test

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and that there

were no special reasons justifying a derogation in that regard. The Immigration Office added that that

decision was not called into question by the standstill clauses set out in the Association Agreement

between the European Economic Community and Turkey

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and in the instruments relating thereto,

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as interpreted in the case-law of the Court of Justice.

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That condition is laid down in Paragraph 9(12)(5) of the udlændingeloven (Law on Foreign Nationals), according to which, save for special

reasons, including considerations of family unity, a residence permit may be issued only if the person resident in Danish territory has

successfully taken the Prøve i Dansk 1 test, in accordance with Paragraph 9(1) of the lov om danskuddannelse til voksne udlændinge m.fl

(Law on Danish language courses for adult foreign nationals) or a Danish test at an equivalent or higher level.

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Agreement establishing an Association between the European Economic Community and Turkey, signed at Ankara on 12 September 1963 by

the Republic of Turkey, on the one hand, and by the Member States of the EEC and the Community, on the other, and concluded, approved

and confirmed on behalf of the Community by Council Decision 64/732/EEC of 23 December 1963 (OJ 1964 217, p 3685; ‘the Associ ation

Agreement’).

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As regards those standstill clauses, in particular Article 13 of Decision No 1/80 of the Association Council set up by the Association

Agreement of 19 September 1980, cited above, on the development of the Association between the European Economic Community an d

Turkey (‘Decision No 1/80’), lays down a standstill clause which prohibits the contracting parties from introducing new restrictions on

freedom of movement for workers with effect from 1 December 1980.