Special Section: EU Citizenship, Federalism, and Rights. European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, Vol. 3, 2018, No 3

Abstract

This special section of the European Papers (Vol 3, No. 3, 2018) focuses on the intersection of EU citizenship and federalism in Europe, approaching this intersection from an array of different perspectives. European Citizenship, although derived from the nationalities of the Member States, came to play a significant independent role in reforming European constitutionalism in unanticipated ways by undermining some of the key assumptions underlying the notions of citizenship, equality and democratic accountability. Instead of lingering merely as a super-structure atop Member State nationalities, it instead reshuffles the constitutional basics and not all Europeans emerge as winners as a result. To demonstrate this, the authors look at the impact of the cumulation of Member State nationalities on the scope of EU free movement rights of citizens, showing that additional EU nationalities can actually also be a liability, not only an asset (de Groot); that EU citizenship law came to influence also other areas of free movement of persons, including workers’ and students’ rights (Turmo); the EU citizenship can play a role in the context of the contestation of fundamental rights during global financial crises (Kalaitzaki), which also concerns the supranational-level democracy tools, such as the citizens’ initiative (Ianni’), as well, as, potentially, has an impact on the right to participate in EU-level elections as such (Platon); that the Court of Justice is not as unpredictable and rights-anaemic as some scholars claimed, while approaching access to social benefits case-law out of context (Carter and Jesse); that the line between ‘use’ and ‘abuse’ of rights is still terribly thin in a constitutional system where falling within the scope of supranational law represents a very complex and at times haphazard test (Kroeze); and, lastly, that investment citizenship, even if offered in full compliance with national law, could represent a challenge for the upholding of fundamental freedoms supranatoinally (Kudryashova). Many a lesson can be drawn from this heterogeneous, yet strictly EU citizenship-focused collection.

Keywords: EU Law, EU Citizenship, Free Movement, Social Benefits, Democracy