Non-Danish EU citizens would therefore be forced to earn the right to benefits by working for a specified period of time in Denmark, Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen argued.
"I think it's only fair for them [EU citizens] to meet certain requirements in order to obtain social benefits," Jensen said, as quoted by the Danish tabloid newspaper Extra Bladet. "This will also foster a better understanding in Denmark that labor is something dynamic that moves around," he said.
According to Jensen, this is not a matter of money, but, rather, of social justice. Jensen also regretted an earlier EU ruling that the Danish principle of withholding child allowance benefits until they were substantiated by earnings contradicted EU legislation. In 2013, the European Commission ruled that all EU citizens should be entitled to the quarterly child support benefit as soon as they are legally registered in the country.
"The Foreign Minister added fuel to the fire, so now it sounds like money is pouring out of the treasury. This is simply wrong," Sofie Carsten Nielsen, the Social Liberal Party spokesperson, told Jyllands-Posten.
Jensen rebutted all criticism himself by declaring it was wise to combat the evil while it was still at a fledgling stage.
"If you can see that there is a problem starting to grow, then it is better to prevent it before the problem becomes too big," he said.
