Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on "Access to European Union citizenship"
Date: 2003-05-14
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU migration policy, European citizenship, foreign national

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— The intervention system must be retained with its current
features, namely the level of the intervention price should
be the proposed effective support price.

— The import arrangements must be geared to the survival
of the sector from the point of view of both financial
aspects and food safety for the public at large.

Brussels, 14 May 2003.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Roger BRIESCH

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on ‘Access to European Union
citizenship’

(2003/C 208/19)

On 21 January 2003 the European Economic and Social Committee decided to draw up an opinion,
under Article 29(2) of its Rules of Procedure, on ‘Access to European Union citizenship’.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 2 April 2003. The rapporteur was Mr Pariza
Castaños.

At its 399th plenary session on 14 and 15 May 2003 (meeting of 14 May), the European Economic and
Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 88 votes in favour and 40 votes against, with
8 abstentions.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
The European Convention has been working for
months on drafting a Constitutional Treaty for the European
Union. The EESC is participating in the work of the Convention
through its observers, who bring to Convention debates the
various proposals and recommendations adopted by the EESC
in its opinions and its resolution addressed to the European
Convention.

1.2. With regard to European immigration and asylum
policy, as derived from the Treaty of Amsterdam and the
Tampere European Council, the EESC has drawn up various
opinions through which it
is helping to ensure that the
European Union has an appropriate common policy and
transparent legislation based on equal treatment, equal rights
and obligations, and the fight against all forms of discrimi-
nation.

On 9 and 10 September 2002,

the EESC — in
1.3.
cooperation with the European Commission — organised a
conference attended by representatives of the social partners

and major social organisations from 25 European States, to
promote the integration of immigrants and refugees in Euro-
pean societies and to obtain new commitments from civil
society (1).

1.4.
The immigrant population of the Member States is set
to rise. All the experts agree that for demographic, economic
and social reasons immigration is going to increase and that a
large number of these people will settle on a long-term or
permanent basis (2). Furthermore, mobility between Member
States will increase as freedom of movement evolves. Mobility

(1) The conference also analysed other matters relating to immi-
gration, such as the situation of people ‘without papers’. It was
concluded that when there is proper legislation allowing for
the legal and transparent management of immigration, illegal
immigration will decrease. These people must be treated fairly
and the Member States must do their best to regularise their
situation.

(2) COM(2001) 127 final, EESC opinion OJ C 36, 8.2.2002

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will also affect immigrant groups. The draft Directive on the
status of third country nationals who are long-term residents
proposes facilitating the mobility of such persons (1).

who reside on a stable basis in the European Union to be
granted citizenship so that they can exercise their political and
social rights.

Pro-integration public policies and social attitudes are
1.5.
needed to make Europe a welcoming place, an inclusive, plural
and intercultural society. To properly integrate present and
future residents from third countries is a strategic objective for
Europeans.

2. Legal bases

The Convention must consider whether the present
1.6.
political and legal foundations of the common immigration
policy are sufficient for pushing forward with this objective of
encouraging integration. The EESC would like to see the future
European Constitution reinforce the Union’s mandate to draw
up an appropriate common immigration and asylum policy in
line with the Tampere Council conclusions.

1.7.
One of the conclusions of the conference was that
the Convention should grant European citizenship to third-
country nationals who are stable residents. This would make it
easier for them to exercise their political rights and thereby
improve integration, as European citizenship and the rights
and obligations deriving from it are a very important factor
for the integration of these people into host societies.

The EESC’s resolution addressed to the European
1.8.
Convention states the following:
‘Policies for integrating
immigrants need to be improved. The Committee calls on the
Convention to examine the possibility of granting Union
citizenship to third country nationals with long-term resident
status’.

Bearing in mind the constitutional nature of

1.9.
the
Convention’s work, the EESC calls on the European Conven-
tion to consider and analyse this proposal with due attention.

1.10.
This proposal also has the backing of many people
and political and social organisations in the various Member
States who for years have been calling for third party nationals

2.1.
It is for the European Convention to draw up proposals
for providing EU legislation with new bases. Union citizenship,
as instituted by the Maastricht Treaty, is at the crux of this
responsibility for updating the bases of European law. In the
first part of the draft Constitutional Treaty (Articles 1 to 16)
published by the secretariat of the European Convention on
6 February 2003 (CONV 528/03), the Praesidium proposes
that Union citizenship be an entitlement which is additional
to, but does not replace, national citizenship (Article 7.1). This
precept establishes a clear link between the definition of Union
citizenship and the guarantee by the Union of the right of all
Union citizens to equality before the law (end of Article 7.1).

2.2.
In line with this suggested link between citizenship
and legal equality, the EESC proposes that the European
Convention should adopt a broad definition of European
citizenship covering third country nationals who are stable or
long-term residents in one of the Member States. This broad
definition corresponds to the one adopted by the Commission
and termed ‘civic citizenship’ (2).

2.3.
The proposal to enshrine this broad concept of Euro-
pean citizenship in European primary legislation is bolstered
by the Convention’s explicit objective to incorporate the
Charter of Fundamental Rights, as solemnly proclaimed by the
Parliament, Council and Commission (3), into the European
Constitution. This broad definition of European citizenship, or
is the supreme legal expression of the
‘civic citizenship’,
European Union’s commitment to gradually and increasingly
giving tangible effect to the indivisible and universal right of
all people to equality before the law. This value of legal equality
is laid down as an individual fundamental right in Article 20
of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and as the first
tenet of European citizenship in Article 7(1) of the draft
Constitutional Treaty drawn up by the Praesidium of the
European Convention.

( 1) EESC opinion on the Proposal for a Council Directive on the right
to family reunification, OJ C 241, 7.10.2002; OJ C 204, 18.7.2000

(2) COM(2000) 757 final.
(3) OJ C 364, 18.12.2000.

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2.4.
The fact that this proposal takes Article 20 of the EU
Charter of Fundamental Rights as its legal basis is fully
compatible and consistent with the in-depth legal consider-
ation of the way in which the Commission has developed EU
immigration policy since 1997 under Article 63 of the EC
Treaty. Indeed, since the entry into force of the Treaty of
Amsterdam,
the Council has had the authority to adopt
measures on immigration policy to ensure common equal
treatment for third country nationals with regard to the
conditions and procedures governing entry and residence, and
the rights and conditions under which third country nationals
who are legally resident in a Member State may reside in other
Member States.

b)

c)

nationals residing legally and on a stable basis in one of
the Member States (equality before the law);

strengthens the guarantee of non-discrimination in the
regulations covering third party nationals with long-term
resident status (equality in the law); and

indirectly helps to give tangible effect to the guarantee of
the right to non-discrimination in the application of
Community legislation governing the situations of third
party nationals (equality in the application of the law).

2.5.
The exercise of these powers will, in the near future,
result in a genuine set of Community rules for the different
legal situations of third country nationals who, having entered
the EU legally, travel through, or stay temporarily or reside on
a stable basis in the Member States. The Commission’s
Communications to the Council and Parliament (A Com-
munity immigration policy (1) and An open method of coordi-
nation for the Community immigration policy (2)) and pro-
posed Directives on this issue state that these rules will include
a single legal regime governing the situation of third country
nationals who are legal stable or long-term residents (3) either
directly, owing to the fact that they are permanent residents,
or by exercising the right to family reunification (4).

The broad definition of European citizenship, or ‘civic
2.6.
citizenship’, based on Article 20 of
the EU Charter of
Fundamental Rights addresses the same social phenomenon
that justifies giving the Council the responsibilities laid down
in Article 63 of the EC Treaty, although the focus is on
immigrants residing legally and on a long-term basis in the
Member States.

2.8.
The strict definition of EU citizenship addresses the
need to regulate a legal situation laid down in Articles 17 to
22 of the EC Treaty. Accordingly, the broad definition of
European citizenship, or ‘civic citizenship’, should address the
legal situation created by the future Constitutional Treaty, the
scope of which encompasses stable residents who are not
nationals of any of the Member States. The acceptance in
Union law of this new criterion for granting citizenship must
be based on the definition of the rights, benefits and interests
which are protected in this legal situation. The content of this
future regulation must maintain a fair balance by stipulating
that these people must comply with the Community regu-
lations and principles of Union law that apply to them. It must
also be hoped that this legal recognition of the broad definition
of European citizenship, or ‘civic citizenship’, is provided with
the same procedure for updating its content as laid down in
Article 22 of the EC Treaty for the content of European
citizenship.

2.7.
The difference between these two perspectives there-
fore lies not in the social situation covered by the regulations,
but in how to adopt a concept of ‘civic citizenship’ which
provides a constitutional legal instrument that:

a)

enshrines at the highest level of EU law the commitment
to equal treatment for third party nationals in order to
promote and facilitate the civic integration of third party

2.9.
Extending the ambit of European citizenship through
this new criterion for granting citizenship does not modify the
powers and tasks given to the EU institutions by the Treaties.
However, if the Convention were to adopt a broad definition
of European citizenship, this would gradually give effect, in
relation to third party nationals, to the EU’s commitment to
respect the fundamental right to equality before the law, in the
law and in the application of the law, as proclaimed in the EU
Charter of Fundamental Rights and as safeguarded in the
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms signed in Rome on 4 November 1950.

( 1) COM(2000) 757 final.
( 2) COM(2001) 387 final.
( 3) COM(2001) 127 final.
( 4) OJ C 204, 18.7.2000.

2.10.
As stated in Article 51 of the EU Charter of Funda-
mental Rights, this commitment would also have to be binding
on the Member States in their application of EU law. More
specifically, it would have to be used as a guide when applying

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Article 63(4) of the EC Treaty on the adoption by the Member
States of national provisions defining the conditions and
procedures governing entry and residence of third country
nationals (Article 63(3) and (4)) that are compatible with the
Treaty and with international agreements.

Subsidiarity must not be used by the Member States to
limit residents’ rights. Moreover, as the EESC (1) pointed out:
‘Member State legislation allowing for dual nationality [...] is a
positive factor for integration.’

3. European Convention

3.1.
On 6 February, the Convention Praesidium published
its draft of Articles 1 to 16 of the Constitution. Article 5
incorporates the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the
Constitution, while Article 7 defines citizenship of the Union
as follows: ‘Every national of a Member State shall be a citizen
of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to
national citizenship; it shall not replace it.’

This proposal denies EU citizenship to residents who

3.2.
are third party nationals, even if they are stable residents.

3.3.
The EESC has proposed in various opinions (see
Appendix) that the Constitution should grant EU citizenship
to third country nationals who reside on a stable basis in the
EU.

In its resolution to the European Convention, the EESC
3.4.
called for the Convention to grant Union citizenship to third
country nationals who are stable or long-term residents so as
to improve integration. Equality between all residents, be they
nationals of the Member States or of third countries, is a sine
qua non for integration. A community cannot have living
within its midst some people who are debarred from the
political and other rights enjoyed by those ‘foreigners’ who are
Member State nationals.

4.2.
However, it is for the Union to define EU citizenship
and its characteristics. When the Convention redefines citizen-
ship of the Union, it is fulfilling its mandate, as it is the Union’s
responsibility to lay down the nature of such citizenship in
the Constitutional Treaty. The concept of European Union
citizenship first appeared in the Treaty of Maastricht before
being consolidated in the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice. It
is therefore a firmly consolidated legal and political institution
in the European Union. The Treaty currently stipulates that
people who are citizens of one of the Member States are
citizens of the Union; it is therefore the Member States that
indirectly decide who are citizens of the Union and who are
not.

4.3.
European citizenship must be at the heart of the
European venture. The Convention is developing a major
political project to ensure that all citizens feel part of a
supranational democratic political community. It is time a new
criterion for granting citizenship: European citizenship based
not only on nationality, but also on stable residence in the
European Union.
In the Charter of Fundamental Rights,
national legislations, the Treaties and EU legislation, residence
is already a criterion for granting various economic, social,
cultural and civil rights and obligations. However, at the
moment some political rights, such as the right to vote, are
excluded. The EESC believes that legal stable residence must
also be a route to achieving citizenship of the European Union.

The EESC welcomes the incorporation of the Charter
4.4.
of Fundamental Rights into the Constitution and adhesion to
the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms, which recognises a ‘civic’ citizenship.
This is the first step towards participatory citizenship for all
people residing on a stable basis in the EU.

4. Plural, inclusive and participatory European citizen-

ship

4.5.
The EESC agrees with the nature of Union citizenship:
i.e. that it should be in addition to national citizenship, not
replace it. The new criterion for granting Union citizenship
proposed by the EESC may open up new possibilities for
residents who are not EU nationals.

4.1.
In line with the principle of subsidiarity, each Member
State must continue to be responsible for drawing up legis-
lation granting nationality of each State. However, a degree
of harmonisation is needed in order to prevent unwanted
discrimination and promote actions to foster integration, such
as granting nationality to stable residents if they so wish.

(1) OJ C 125, 27.5.2002.

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4.6.
At the moment, Union citizenship and the political
rights this implies are granted on the basis of nationality.
European citizenship is granted to five million people who
reside in one of the Member States and are nationals of another
Member State. However, between 15 and 20 million people
who reside in the European Union but are not nationals of one
of the Member States are discriminated against. Some Member
States and candidate countries recognise their right to vote in
local elections. Most States, however, deny these people their
political rights. In accordance with the principle of equality,
such discrimination on the grounds of nationality must be
eliminated.

4.7. Many of these people, moreover, belong to minorities
who suffer a wide range of different forms of discrimination
on the part of the society in which they live, as well as legal
discrimination. For these people, legal discrimination on the
grounds of nationality simply marginalises them even further.

4.8.
European citizenship cannot be built without taking
account of all these people. At a time when the European
Union is embracing most of the States and citizens of Central
and Eastern Europe, it cannot go on excluding millions of
people who live within its borders. The outward opening-up
of European citizenship must go hand in hand with inward
inclusion. If not, millions of people who are actively in the
process of integration will undoubtedly feel very excluded.
Given that these people are asked to comply with the law, it is
only fair that they should have the same rights as the rest of
the community.

4.9.
The EESC wants European citizenship to be extended
inwards as well, towards people who reside on a stable basis
in the European Union and are either third country nationals
or stateless. These people currently make up the seventh-
largest demographic group in the EU. Citizens’ Europe must
not become a fortress Europe that distinguishes between
people on the basis of their nationality and, increasingly, how
much they are in the public eye.

and solidarity. It also asks if this is consistent with the fact that
for many years European democracies have been fighting
against all types of legal and social discrimination.

The EESC believes that the Convention may put an
4.11.
end to such discrimination in the future European Consti-
tution. If third country nationals who are stable residents were
to obtain Union citizenship, some forms of discrimination
from which many people suffer would be eliminated, e.g.
regarding the right to political participation, free movement,
use of public services, the right to vote in elections at the
workplace, the right to own property, etc.

4.12.
As European citizens, we speak different languages,
have different customs, profess different religions or no
religion at all, have different coloured hair and skin, are of
different sexes and sexual orientations, and have different
ethnic origins, social, geographical and national backgrounds,
cultural roots, and moral and ideological beliefs. European
democracies have managed to integrate differences by pro-
hibiting any form of illegal discrimination. However, we still
have discriminatory and negative legislation that excludes
people from political and social rights on the basis of national
origin.

4.13.
In the first European Constitution, at the beginning
of the 21st century, the right to citizenship must go beyond
the limits of nationality and embrace the concept of stable
residence. If the basis for people’s political or social rights is
belonging to a national community, or an ethnic or cultural
group, there can be no such thing as European citizenship.
Europe is plural in every sense; in essence it is intercultural.
The basis for the European Union is not
the ‘European
nation’. European citizenship cannot be based exclusively on
nationality, but must go beyond the mere sum of Member
State nationals in order to be a plural and participatory
form of political citizenship that promotes integration. Such
participatory citizenship, which is part of the common identity
of European citizens, implies not only a democratic relation-
ship between citizens and ‘the State’, but also a system of
participatory relationships between citizens and civil society
organisations.

5. Right to vote

The EESC asks the European Convention if

4.10.
this
situation of political and social exclusion for millions of
residents is compatible with the values it proposes for the
Union in Article 2 of the future Constitution:
i.e. human
dignity, liberty, the rule of law, human rights, tolerance, justice

5.1.
In ancient Greece and Rome, women, slaves and
‘foreigners’ were denied the right to citizenship (as we under-
stand it today). Likewise, during the revolutions of the last few
centuries, employees and people who did not own property
were sometimes denied voting and other political rights. In

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Europe, it was well into the 20th century that women won the
right to vote and citizenship on the same terms as men.
Moreover, during the last century, many States denied citizen-
ship to people belonging to minority ethnic groups. The
struggle for democracy and political rights has been an
ongoing process, which our generation must defend and
continue.

5.2.
There is no doubt that when a person or group of
people are denied voting rights or the right to political
participation by the society in which they reside, this society is
expressing a wish to exclude: it is refusing to let them belong
to the community. These people are allowed to reside in the
EU, and to work, pay taxes and social contributions, and they
accept and adhere to our laws ... but they are denied, inter alia,
the right to political participation. They are not EU citizens
because, even if they want to be, they are not part of the
political community of the ‘civitas’ where they live.

In another opinion (1), the EESC stated that legislation,
5.3.
public authorities and civil society all need to reflect pro-
integration policies and attitudes. The basis of integration is
‘civic integration’, ‘bringing immigrants’ rights and duties, as
well as access to goods, services and means of civic partici-
pation progressively into line with those of the rest of the
population, under conditions of equal opportunities and
treatment’.
It is therefore a concept of integration that is
political in nature and includes voting rights and other political
rights inherent to citizenship.

5.4.
The advantages for people who are granted political
rights are clear: they have the same duties and the same rights
as the rest of the population. And what are the advantages for
the host society? Some Member States that have already
granted ‘foreign’ residents the right to vote in municipal
elections are making progress on integration. Although all
societies inevitably experience a degree of conflict, such
conflict is always reduced if political participation is exercised
effectively, as participation in drafting laws contributes towards
their effective implementation. Back in 1992, the Council of

( 1) OJ C 125, 27.5.2002.

Brussels, 14 May 2003.

Europe drew up Convention 144 on foreign residents’ right to
vote in local authority elections.

5.5.
The right to vote (active and passive), which is inherent
in the type of European citizenship that we demand for third
country nationals who reside in the EU on a stable or long-
term basis, should apply to local elections in the country of
residence as well as European Parliament elections, as this is
the political
institution that represents all citizens of the
European Union.

6. Conclusions

6.1.
Granting EU citizenship to third-country nationals
who are stable or long-term residents is a positive step that
demonstrates the EU’s commitment to integrating all residents,
regardless of nationality.

6.2.
The immigrant population of the Member States is set
to rise. Many of these people will be stable or long-term
residents. There will be an all-round increase in mobility as
freedom of movement evolves. The Convention must consider
whether the present political and legal bases are adequate or
not for promoting integration.

6.3.
The EESC calls on the Convention, in drafting the first
EU Constitution, to apply the principle of equality to everyone,
be they Member State or third country nationals, who resides
on a legal and stable basis in the Union.

6.4.
The EESC calls on the Convention to provide a new
criterion for granting Union citizenship: citizenship should be
linked not only to nationality of a Member State, but also to
stable residence in the Union.

6.5.
The EESC therefore proposes to the Convention that
Article 7 (Citizenship of the Union) be granted not only to
nationals of the Member States but to all persons who reside
on a stable or long-term basis in the European Union. Union
citizenship will be additional to but will not replace national
citizenship. In this way such persons will be European citizens
and therefore equal before the law.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Roger BRIESCH