EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 88/362

(2004/C 88 E/0367)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1641/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(16 May 2003)

Subject: Failure to grant Slovene nationality to persons who in 1991 were residents of the then Yugoslav republic of Slovenia and had Yugoslav nationality

1. Can the Commission confirm that the future EU Member State Slovenia removed large numbers of residents from its population register following its declaration of independence in 1991, with the result that the persons concerned no longer enjoy the right in that country to education, employment, housing, healthcare and pensions?

2. Can the Commission also confirm that residents of Slovenia formerly of Yugoslav nationality who, for whatever reason, failed during the first six months after independence to apply for Slovene nationality, have been unable to obtain it since, unless, as permanent residents, they briefly had the right in 1998 to submit a new application?

3. Has the creation of the new state of Slovenia led to an increase in the number of people without nationality? Which population groups are most affected? Does this concern in particular people whose parents belonged to Italian, Hungarian, German, Bosnian, Macedonian and Roma minorities?

4. Do the new Member States have an obligation to give residents and former residents who had the nationality of a former state the opportunity to acquire the new nationality, with no one running the risk of being unable to exercise that right in practice as a result of temporary absence, ignorance, illness or other circumstances? Do those affected have the possibility to apply again?

5. Has the Commission to date pursued a policy directed against loss of nationality and the removal of normal rights for permanent residents? What measures is the Commission taking to prevent new problems from arising as a result of the creation of a group of stateless, second-class citizens without rights?

Source: TV Nederland-2, current affairs programme 2-Vaandag, 2 May 2003.

Answer given by M. Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(30 June 2003)

When Slovenia declared its independence in 1991, citizens of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) residing in Slovenia were given the possibility to apply for Slovenian citizenship. A deadline was set for submitting applications and a large number of people submitted an application and were granted Slovenian citizenship. Others opted for citizenship of one of the other successor states of SFRY, a number of people left Slovenia to live in the other successor states of SFRY and others stayed in Slovenia without applying for citizenship. The people who did not apply for citizenship, were erased from the population register. According to the Slovenian Ministry of the Interior, the number of people concerned is 18 300. However, the Commission does not have any statistical information on the population groups affected.

A law adopted in 1999 attempted to regulate the status of these former citizens of SFRY living in Slovenia (the so-called ‘erased’) by providing them a possibility to apply for permanent residence within three months. According to Slovenian authorities, about 13 000 applications for permanent residence were received. In September 2002, 10 200 decisions had been taken, 9 800 of them being positive. Furthermore, a number of the people who had applied for permanent residence were in the meantime granted Slovenian citizenship.

In April 2003, the Constitutional Court ruled that the deadline for submitting applications in the law of 1999 was too short and therefore not in line with the Constitution. It requested the Parliament to bring the legislation on this matter into line with the Constitution within six months.

The amendments to the Law on Citizenship of October 2002 also aim at contributing to the resolution of the problem of the ‘erased’ by stipulating easier procedures for obtaining Slovenian citizenship for stateless people.

The question of citizenship of newly emerged states is a particularly complex one. A nationality of a Member State 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 (1). It is therefore for each Member State, having due regard to Community law, to lay down the conditions for acquisition and loss of nationality (2). However, the Commission has encouraged the Slovenian authorities to resolve this issue and has followed up progress made in its yearly Regular Reports under the political criteria section.

(1) Declaration no 2 on nationality of a Member State, OJ C 191, 29.7.1992.

(2) See judgement of the Court of Justice in case C-369/90 Micheletti of 7.7.1992, ECR 1992.