Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/11466842/EU-Citizenship
Timestamp: 2015-10-10 01:05:59
Document Index: 553866326

Matched Legal Cases: ['art. 8', 'art. 18', 'art. 8', 'art.18', 'art. 19', 'art. 20', 'Art. 21', 'art. 22', 'art. 17']

P. 1EU CitizenshipEU CitizenshipRatings: 4.5 (1)|Views: 624|Likes: 0Published by Ken AdamsThe the reason for and the effects of EU citizenship on national citizenship and the struggle over an EU DEmoswas introduced in an attempt to replace national citizenship and undermine the concept of national sovereignty.The the reason for and the effects of EU citizenship on national citizenship and the struggle over an EU DEmoswas introduced in an attempt to replace national citizenship and undermine the concept of national sovereignty.More info:Categories:Types, Research, LawPublished by: Ken Adams on Jan 28, 2009Copyright:Attribution Non-commercialAvailability:Read on Scribd mobile: iPhone, iPad and Android.download as PDF or read online from ScribdFlag for inappropriate content|Add to collectionSee moreSee lesshttps://www.scribd.com/doc/11466842/EU-Citizenship06/16/2009 The Ionian Conference 2000 Ivo Šlosar
íkFacing the Challenges of the New Millennium Charles University, PragueCzech Republic1
GOVERNANCE AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION – THE INFLUENCEOF CULTURE
CITIZENSHIP OF THE EUROPEAN UNION – IMPACT OF POLITICAL CULTUREON UNDERSTADING OF THE CITIZENSHIP IN THE UNITED KINGDOM,FRANCE, GERMANY AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Table of Contents:1. Introduction – Object of the paper2. Theoretical and practical impact of the European citizenship3. Compatibility of “dual citizenship” in tradition of member statesa. United Kingdom : How to be a subject and a citizen at one time?b. France : National sovereignty, popular sovereignty and citizenshipc. Germany : Practical support but theoretical limitations of the European citizenship4. Czech Republic : New state and new rules5. Prospects of European citizenship : Harmonization or deepening of national specifics?
Introduction – Object of the paper
European citizenship is rather new phenomenon in European legal order, being introduced bythe Maastricht Treaty and modified by Amsterdam Treaty. Albeit not playing extremelyimportant role in lives of European citizens at present, in combination with direct elections tothe European Parliament the citizenship of the EU could be a basis for radical shift inunderstanding of the EU status in the future.This paper will analyze the compatibility of the concept of European citizenship withconstitutional and political traditions of the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Further,this paper will try to predict its future position in the Czech Republic and its implementationinto the Czech legal and political system.
Theoretical and practical impact of the European citizenship in the 90s
The Maastricht Treaty introduced a new phenomena into community primary law – thecitizenship of the European Union. The article 17 (ex-art. 8) says :
Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every citizen holding the nationality of the Member State shall be a citizen of the Union.
(Maastricht version)
Citizenship of the Unionshall complement and not replace national citizenship
. (Amsterdam amendment)The rights and obligations emanating from the citizenship of the EU are then specified infollowing articles (art. 18-22/ ex-art. 8a-8e). They include right to free movement andresidence (art.18), active and passive electoral rights in the municipal elections and electionsinto the European Parliament (art. 19), right for diplomatic protection (art. 20), petition rightsto the European Parliament and right to refer matters to Ombudsman (Art. 21). Further, theTreaty contains a mechanism for expansion of rights derived from the citizenship of the EU –acting on proposal from the Commission, the Council of Ministers can unanimously
The Ionian Conference 2000 Ivo Šlosar
íkFacing the Challenges of the New Millennium Charles University, PragueCzech Republic2
strengthen or supplement aforesaid catalogue, in co-decision with the European Parliament(art. 22).At the European level, three readings of the citizenship of the European Union can beidentified :First, according to contemporary doctrine of both international and constitutional law, thepopulation and citizenship are (in conjunction with territory and effective governance)conditions sine qua non of any statal structure. Then, the establishment of the citizenship of the EU can be interpreted as a step towards creation of more integrated Europeansupranational organization – a kind of European super federation. However, the EUcitizenship
shall complement and not replace national citizenship
(art. 17, sent. 3). The lastsentence, added by the Amsterdam Treaty, weakens radically pro-federalist interpretation of the EU citizenship. Experience of federal and/or con-federal states and their regulation of citizenship can be used as a blueprint there, albeit in limited scale
.Secondly, the citizenship of the European Union is interpreted as a recognition of theEuropean population (population of member states) as a body which holds the popularsovereignty in the EU framework. Majority of member states’ constitutions contains areference to “people” or “nation” which the state sovereignty is vested in. The community lawdoes the same implicitly by establishment of the citizenship of the EU. Since 1979, the “EUpeople” or “EU nation” have even an institution which can directly represent their interest atthe community level – the European Parliament. Then the EU people shall be one of the threeentities, together with member states and the European Union itself, which govern the workand expansion of the European integration – the former represented by the Council and thelatter by the Commission.The problems of the second reading of the EU citizenship are inherently encoded in the usedterminology. When using terms like “sovereignty”, ”popular sovereignty” or “nation” onesimply cannot escape the fact of endless disputes over their content and meaning. Anothercritique of the interpretation of the EU citizenship as the expression of popular sovereignty isbased on fact that there is still no European-wide political debate and/or European-widepublic forum. According to the critiques, the European popular sovereignty cannot beexpressed in other than purely formal way and can never replace national sovereignty of member states, as the citizenship of the EU can never replace citizenship of member states.This critique generally originates from German legal background and will be discussed in thesub-chapter on Germany in more detail.The third reading of the EU citizenship is the “practical” one. European citizenship isinterpreted a tool of improving lives of citizens of member states – not matter whether in theEU territory or abroad. The symbolic value of the EU citizenship may be important, the moreimportant is the protection of a particular citizen in foreign dangerous country outside Europeor the fact that a particular man or woman do not have to spend money and go to theirdomestic state only to vote in the EP elections. This reading of the EU citizenship is moreabout concrete rights than far future and theoretical concepts.
See J.H.H. Weiler: THE CONSTITUTION OF EUROPE, Cambridge University Press 1999, pp324-356
íkFacing the Challenges of the New Millennium Charles University, PragueCzech Republic3
As following pages will show, the member stated discussed (the United Kingdom, France andGermany) have not stuck exclusively to any of the three readings of the European citizenship.Instead, they seem to combine all of them in order to make the doctrine of “dual citizenship”(citizenship of the EU and citizenship of a member state) compatible with their ownconstitutional tradition.
Compatibility of “dual citizenship” in tradition of member states
In order to accept the doctrine of the EU citizenship, the member states have to clarify threemain questions:1. What new obligation will emerge for us ?2. Who will be the citizens of the European Union ?3. Is the EU citizenship compatible with our constitution ?
United Kingdom : How to be a subject and a citizen at one time?
Paradoxically, the United Kingdom was the country, where the ratification of the MaastrichtTreaty has met the smallest obstacles, not matter how famous is the United Kingdom for itsEuro-skepticism
. The adoption of the Maastricht Treaty, which included the introduction of the citizenship of the EU, had to survive neither constitutional review nor referendum.Due to the character of British constitutional system, the only formal change in Britishdomestic legal order was amendment of the European Communities Act 1972. The BritishNationality Act 1981, which regulates the process of acquisition of British citizenship,remained uninfluenced. During a year following ratification, a several laws regulating localelection, election to the European Parliament and social security system have been amended –without significant opposition in the Parliament or public debate.The fact that the community law does not regulate whether an individual possesses nationalityof particular member state, was crucial for British approach to the citizenship of the EU.British Nationality Act 1981 has introduced several categories of British citizenship (Britishcitizenship, British Dependent territories citizenship and British Overseas citizenship) – butonly a holder of the first category of citizenship is considered to be citizen of the EuropeanUnion. Additionally, after transfer of sovereignty over Hong-Kong back to China, the UnitedKingdom has adopted for Hong-Kong inhabitants specific simplified procedure foracquisition of British citizenship – which remains also out of sphere of the EU regulation.Concluding, the United Kingdom constitutional tradition cause only marginal obstacles forincorporation of the concept of the EU citizenship into British legal system. The scale of debate connected with the citizenship issue was radically lower than debate connected withother issues raised by the Maastricht Treaty – such as parliamentary sovereignty, CommonDefense and Foreign Policy or Economic and Monetary Union.
E. Best : THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE RATIFICATION OF THE MAASTRICHT TREATY, inRatification of the Maastricht Treaty (Vanboonacker ed.), 245
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