The Emergence of EU Citizenship as a Direct Legal Bond with the Union
11 Pages Posted: 6 Feb 2018
Date Written: January 28, 2018
Abstract
EU citizenship has essentially become a nationality, albeit an unusual nationality, directly under Union law. The Member States of the EU, and other authorities, have often argued that EU citizenship is not the same as nationality of a state. However, increasingly this status is approaching nationality. Nationality is a status under law, and that status is holding a legal bond with the state. EU citizenship is the equivalent in that it fulfills the fundamental criterion of citizenship being a legal bond with a territorial, political entity.
While there were some submissions that EU citizenship was not a nationality, the language in the treaty is somewhat vague. The intention of the parties was not to abandon their state nationalities, but they did not specify what they intended EU citizenship to be, other than to say it was not state nationality. Surely the parties meant to create a legal bond, but then it is not clear whether nationality was understood to also be a legal bond or an ethnicity or some other legal or non-legal status.
However, even if we could find some consensus on the meaning of the text, the EU has evolved quickly and subsequent practice under the Treaties on European Union shows that EU citizenship is maturing into a status that millions of people enjoy and rely on in their daily lives. Obviously, due to the terms of the Treaties on European Union, EU citizenship continues to be dependent on EU Member State nationality, but it is increasingly independent of that status in other important ways. For all intents and purposes, this evolution and realization of the terms of the Treaties on European Union means that EU citizenship is the functional equivalent of a nationality.
Keywords: European Union, EU, citizenship, Member State, MS, nationality, legal bond
JEL Classification: K00, K10, K19, K30, K33, K37, K39
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation