Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2001:106
Date: 2001-02-20
Language of the case: English
Court formation: Full Court
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Accession;Citizenship of the Union;Free movement of workers
Concepts: Interpretation of Community law;Free movement of persons
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: United Kingdom

Summary of the Judgment 
Community law — Interpretation — Account to be taken of declarations — Declara­
tions by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the definition of 
the term 'nationals' 
(1972 Act of Accession, Declaration by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Northern Ireland on the definition of the term 'nationals', replaced by the 
1982 Declaration) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-192/99 
The 1972 Declaration by the Government 
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Northern Ireland on the definition of the 
term 'nationals', annexed to the Final Act 
of the Treaty concerning the Accession of 
the Kingdom of Denmark, Ireland and the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Northern Ireland to the European Commu­
nities, must be taken into consideration as 
.an instrument relating to the Treaty for the 
purpose of its interpretation and, more 
particularly, for determining the scope of 
the Treaty ratione personae. 
Although unilateral, this declaration was 
intended to clarify an issue of particular 
importance for the other Contracting Par­
ties inasmuch as it was intended to define 
those United Kingdom nationals who 
would benefit from the provisions of the 
Treaty and, in particular, from the provi­
sions relating to the free movement of 
persons. The other Contracting Parties 
were fully aware of its content and the 
conditions of accession were determined on 
that basis. Furthermore, adoption of that 
declaration did not have the effect of 
depriving any person who did not satisfy 
the definition of a national of the United 
Kingdom of rights to which that person 
might be entitled under Community law 
but rather had the consequence that such 
rights never arose in the first place for such 
a person. 
The 1982 Declaration by the Government 
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Northern Ireland on the definition of the 
term 'nationals' was an adaptation of the 
1972 Declaration necessitated by the adop­
tion, in 1981, of a new Nationality Act. It 
substantially designated the same cate­
gories of persons as the 1972 Declaration 
and has not been challenged by the other 
Member States. It follows that reference 
must be made to this latter declaration in 
order to determine whether a person is a 
national of the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Northern Ireland for the pur­
poses of Community law. 
(see paras 23-27 and operative part) 
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