La citoyenneté européenne Flashcards
Articles 18 to 25 of the TFEU - politisation of the union
The evolution of the EU has allowed the emergence of citizenship which will allow the court to frame more drastically certain restrictions because of the general framework.
La nationnalité
Nationality is a prerogative of the State. The will of the State prevails and cannot be presumed. There are very different legislations between European states on the criteria for granting and expiry of nationality.
One does not deprive someone of their nationality if they were born in France. You can only deprive someone of their nationality if they have been granted it.
Article 9 TUE
« Est citoyen de l’Union toute personne ayant la nationalité d’un État membre. La citoyenneté de l’Union s’ajoute à la citoyenneté nationale et ne la remplace pas »
By merging the concepts of nationality and citizenship (12), it follows that the European citizenship common to the 27 Member States depends in fact on national criteria, which may vary from one Member State to another. There is thus a form of paradox which is further amplified by the possibility for the same Member States to modify over time the modalities of acquisition of their own nationality
Since the Court of Justice has already considered since 2001 that European citizenship “is intended to be the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States” (15), common European rules on the subject would seem appropriate, in order to lay down the broad outlines of the national attribution of citizenship while leaving a margin of state adaptation (16).In the end, European citizenship lacks a legitimacy of its own. As an automatic consequence and not really regulated by the European level, it is in fact more imposed than requested by the citizens of the Member States, which explains, in part, a lack of awareness of its belonging (25)
Role of the CJUE
The only thing the Court is working on is European citizenship. In this decision, it has to check on a case-by-case basis whether the consequences are proportionate to the objective sought. There is no standardisation or harmonisation.
The Court reminds us of the importance of verifying that the consequences of a withdrawal of nationality are not disproportionate to the objective pursued
2010 and the Janko Rottman judgment. the Court stated that a decision by a Member State to withdraw naturalisation must respect the principle of proportionality in terms of the consequences for the personal and family situation of the person concerned: ‘The European Court has, for the first time, laid down an obligation on the Member States in matters of nationality law’. However, the practical scope of the obligation remains difficult to determine and, above all, while it has an impact on the issue of withdrawal of nationality, it has no impact on the issue of the criteria for granting nationality and therefore remains inoperative if the objective is to create a European source of European citizenship.
Citizenship vs nationality
Citizen refers to a category of people: those who have the right to vote. INternal use ; Possible to distinguish categories of people, particularly when the state has overseas territories. In all cases, it reflects the need for the state to differentiate between categories of people in order to grant them or not grant them rights (of movement, political rights).
In contrast, nationality refers to an attribute that is derived from the law - need for identification with the state in relation to the PIL. External use
Droits article 20
- The right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.
The free movement of persons has two contexts. One which is traditional: we speak of the movement of persons (workers). The other is more innovative: that of European citizenship - The right to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections
- The right to enjoy, in the territory of a third country in which the Member State of which they are nationals is not represented, the protection of the diplomatic and consular authorities of any Member State
- The right to petition the European Parliament, to apply to the European Ombudsman
Un citoyenneté disparate et inachevé
the disparate and unfinished content does not really succeed in creating a solid sense of European belonging
Article 20 TFEU does not provide an exhaustive list of EU citizens’ rights. In particular, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights now sets out a whole range of rights and freedoms. However, the integration of this protection into the very concept of citizenship does not, in our view, particularly strengthen the very sense of belonging to the EU, since it is not a criterion for identification. In other words, the extrapolation of the term citizenship in this context does not seem to us to be the most likely to foster an attachment to the EU insofar as the enjoyment of its attributes is not exclusively linked to nationality, whereas this same nationality is the basis of European citizenship
While EU law has established European citizenship, it has not yet succeeded in providing it with sufficient European identification, either in its source or in its content. It is poorly appropriated by European citizens and fails to strengthen the sense of belonging to the EU. What could be considered as a lack of comprehensiveness in the conceptual approach to European citizenship is also evident in its circumstantial dimension.
De l’opérateur économique au citoyen
First of all, the worker, then gradually the consumer of a product is also concerned by the free movement of persons (judgment of 7 March 1990, GB-INNO-BN).
Extension has also benefited nationals of third countries who were members of the family of the European worker (Singh judgment of 7 July 1992).
De l’opérateur économique au citoyen (2)
They were then granted a social advantage by the Court, providing them with more rights when they enter the host State, such as non-discriminatory access to a criminal court/ to housing/ to the protection of physical integrity. This JP leads to the formal recognition of a general right to freedom of movement for all persons, regardless of their status as economic operators.
In a Gravier judgment of 13 February 1985, the Court considered that students were also undergoing vocational training and could therefore also benefit from freedom of movement even if they were not economic operators. The Court wanted to give as many people as possible the benefit of free movement. It was this development that eventually gave free movement to everyone, until we arrived at this notion of citizenship.
Citizen by investment programmes
- PARLEMENT EUROPEEN, Proposition de résolution du Parlement européen assortie de propositions à la Commission sur les programmes de citoyenneté et de résidence contre investissement, 2021
National citizenship is a prerogative of the state - must be exercised in good faith, in a spirit of mutual respect, transparently, in accordance with the principle of sincere cooperation and in full compliance with Union law. CBI schemes leads to commodification of rights = violates Union values, in particular equality
three Member States have legislation in place enabling CBI schemes, namely Bulgaria , Cyprus and Malta, and that 12 Member States have RBI schemes, all with diverging amounts and options of investment and with diverging standards of checks and procedures
Member States to effectively enforce the necessary physical residence for third-country nationals wishing to obtain long-term residence status under the Long-Term Residence Directive without the five years of continuous and legal residence that is a requirement under that Directive
Parlement européen, Communiqué de presse du 15 février 2022
The report stresses that the intermediaries for these schemes are neither transparent nor held accountable, calling for a ban on their involvement in CBIs and a “strict and binding regulation” for RBIs. MEPs want to put a stop to marketing practices that use EU symbols or point to the benefits of EU citizenship, and ask for a sanctions framework. The text also asks the Commission to put pressure on third countries that benefit from visa-free travel to the EU to abolish their CBI and reform their RBI schemes.
Affaire Janko Rottman 2010
A decision withdrawing naturalisation because of deception corresponds to a reason relating to the public interest. In this regard, it is legitimate for a Member State to wish to protect the special relationship of solidarity and good faith between it and its nationals and also the reciprocity of rights and duties, which form the bedrock of the bond of nationality
Having regard to the importance which primary law attaches to the status of citizen of the European Union, when examining a decision withdrawing naturalisation it is necessary, therefore, to take into account the consequences that the decision entails for the person concerned and, if relevant, for the members of his family with regard to the loss of the rights enjoyed by every citizen of the Union, and to establish, in particular, whether that loss is justified in relation to the gravity of the offence committed by that person, to the lapse of time between the naturalisation decision and the withdrawal decision and to whether it is possible for that person to recover his original nationality.
Principle of non-discrimination
Article 18
(ex-article 12 TCE)
Dans le domaine d’application des traités, et sans préjudice des dispositions particulières qu’ils prévoient, est interdite toute discrimination exercée en raison de la nationalité.
Le Parlement européen et le Conseil, statuant conformément à la procédure législative ordinaire, peuvent prendre toute réglementation en vue de l’interdiction de ces discriminations.
The fact that a Union citizen pursues university studies in a Member State other than the State of which he is a national cannot, of itself, deprive him of the possibility of relying on the prohibition of all discrimination on grounds of nationality laid down in Article 6 of the Treaty. The Treaty on European Union has introduced citizenship of the European Union into the Treaty and added to Title VIII of Part Three a new chapter 3 devoted to education and vocational training. There is nothing in the amended text of the Treaty to suggest that students who are citizens of the Union, when they move to another Member State to study there, lose the rights which the Treaty confers on citizens of the Union. Furthermore, the Council has also adopted Directive 93/96, which provides that the Member States must grant the right of residence to student nationals of a Member State who satisfy certain requirements.
