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Citizenship of the European Union

Citizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992. It exists alongside national citizenship and provides additional rights to nationals of European Union Member States.

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History

Prior to the Maastricht Treaty (1992), the European Communities treaties provided guarantees for the free movement of economically active persons, but not, generally, for others. The Treaty of Paris (1951) establishing the European Coal and Steel Community established a right to free movement for workers in these industries and the Treaty of Rome (1957) provided for the free movement of workers and services.

However, the Treaty provisions were interpreted by the European Court of Justice not as having a narrow economic purpose, but rather a wider social and economic purpose. In Levin the Court found that the "freedom to take up employment was important, not just as a means towards the creation of a single market for the benefit of the Member State economies, but as a right for the worker to raise her or his standard of living". Under the ECJ caselaw, the rights of free movement of workers applies regardless of the worker's purpose in taking up employment abroad, to both part-time and full-time work, and whether or not the worker required additional financial assistance from the Member State into which he moves Since, the ECJ has heldthat a recipient of service has free movement rights under the treaty and this criterion is easily fulfilled , effectively every national of an EU country within another Member State, whether economically active or not, had a right under Article 12 of the European Community Treaty to non-discrimination even prior to the Maastricht Treaty.

The concept of EU citizenship as a distinct concept was first introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, and was extended by the Treaty of Amsterdam. The Treaty of Amsterdam stated that union citizenship will not replace national citizenship, but only supplement it.

In Martinez Sala, the ECJ held that the citizenship provisions provided substantive free movement rights in addition to those already granted by Community law.

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Who is an EU Citizen?

Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall complement and not replace national citizenship.

All nationals of Member States are citizens of the union. "It is for each Member State, having due regard to Community law, to lay down the conditions for the acquisition and loss of nationality."

Nationality of the Member States

The citizenship of the Union does not replace the national citizenship, but a nationality of Member States is entirely a matter for the Member States concerned, as the Declaration on nationality of a Member State appended to the Treaty of Maastricht confirms. It is therefore for each Member State, having due regard to the Community law, to lay down the conditions for acquisition and loss of nationality. The European Union does not have any competencies in that regard.

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Rights of EU Citizen

Specific rights

The amended EC Treaty provides the following rights to EU citizens:

a right not to be discriminated against on grounds of nationality within the scope of application of the Treaty (Article 12);
the right of free movement and residence throughout the Union and the right to apply to work in any position (including national civil services with the exception of sensitive positions such as defence) (Article 18);
the right to vote and the right to stand in local and European elections in any Member State, other than the citizen's own, under the same conditions as the nationals of that state (Article 19);
the right to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities of other Member States when in a non-EU Member State, if there are no diplomatic or consular authorities from the citizen's own state (Article 20);
the right to petition the European Parliament and the right to apply to the European Ombudsman in order to bring to his attention any cases of poor administration by the Community institutions and bodies, with the exception of the legal bodies (Article 21);
the right to apply to the Community institutions in one of the official languages and to receive a reply in that same language (Article 21); and
a right of access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (Article 255).

The right to residence for nationals of the two most recent EU members (Romania and Bulgaria) may be limited by member states. However, such limitations can only be imposed in the seven years following those countries' accession, i.e. until the end of 2013. At the year 2013 the restrictions by the particular EU Member States are lifted permanently

Article 18 Free Movement Rights

Article 18 (1) of the amended EC Treaty states that

Every citizen of the Union shall have the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in this Treaty and by the measures adopted to give it effect.

The European Court of Justice has remarked that,

EU Citizenship is destined to be the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States.

The ECJ has held that this Article confers a directly effective right upon citizens to reside in another Member State. Before the case of Baumbast, it was widely assumed that non-economically active citizens had no rights to residence deriving directly from the EC Treaty, only from directives created under the Treaty. In Baumbast, however, the ECJ held that Article 18 of the Treaty granted a generally applicable right to residency, which is limited by secondary legislation, but only where that secondary legislation is proportionate. Member States can distinguish between nationals and Union citizens but only if the provisions satisfy the test of proportionality.Migrant EU citizens have a "legitimate expectation of a limited degree of financial solidarity... having regard to their degree of integration into the host society" Length of time is a particularly important factor when considering the degree of integration.

The ECJ's case law on citizenship has been criticised for subjecting an increasing number of national rules of the proportionality assessment

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