CITIZENSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
CONDITIONS OF CITIZENSHIP
ANA MARIA GUERRA MARTINS
Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon
This report focuses on the conditions of the EU citizenship. At the beginning, the author draws attention to the fact that EU citizenship and state citizenship do not coincide in several matters. Therefore, the theorisation of the EU citizenship must be done autonomously, i.e. outside the State and its constitutional law. Secondly, the author studies the definition of EU citizenship, which is rather dependent on the nationality laws of the Member States, since Article 17 (1) EC Treaty provides "every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union". However, in accordance with the case law of the ECJ, a Member State must not refuse to recognise the nationality of a person of another Member State by imposing any other condition. In this context, the author also stresses the need to respect the principles of equality and non-discrimination. Thereafter, the report concerns the content of the EU citizenship that mainly means the rights associated to EU citizenship and underlines that the foreigners, the aliens, and the immigrants are, fully or partially, excluded from those rights. Finally, the author analyses the contribution of EU citizenship to the constitutionalisation of the Union, concluding that the inclusion in the Treaty of EU citizenship does not constitute any clear constitutional option.
