Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

1. STATUS OF UNION CITIZENSHIP: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

In this chapter, the author provides a fairly contextual background of the historical development of Union citizenship — from the very first mention in acquis communautaire until recent changes in approach towards it. Given that there has already been a plethora of scholarly research and writings on the evolution of the content 13 of Union citizenship elaborated, 14 this chapter is hence rather focused on an assessment from the perspective of its form and on demonstrating its existence and relevance through historical research. The objective of this chapter is thus to provide the reader with a chronological context of the development of citizenship of the Union from the perspective of its form, of its status. The pre-legal and political discussions prior to the Treaty of Maastricht are nonetheless deliberately omitted in the following subchapters since this monograph is oriented rather towards legal aspects of citizenship of the Union and its consequences. In spite of that intention, it must be stated, at least concisely, that an idea of a common status of and for all Europeans had come a long way in its development before it was materialised in the institute of Union citizenship. Should the profoundly historical debates and proposals not be taken into consideration, the first relevant propositions began appearing amongst the professional public in the late 1960s. 15 The 1970s were subsequently 13 For the sake of argument, the content has been interpreted as consisting of a set of rights and duties, as is ordinarily said; nevertheless, in spite of the wording of Article 20(2) TFEU, which enshrined that ‘[c]itizens of the Union […] be subject to the duties provided for in the Treaties’, explicit duties of citizens towards the Union cannot be found anywhere else in Union primary law. M. Svobodová attributes that to the political reasons for trying to depict Union citizenship as a ‘bonus’ which confers rights but does not place duties. To that effect, see Magdaléna Svobodová, Občanství Evropské Unie (Auditorium 2021) 81. 14 For the general perspective, see Chapter 3 in Magdaléna Svobodová, Občanství Evropské Unie (Auditorium 2021); from the angle of political rights, see Jo Shaw, Transformation of Citizenship in the European Union. Electoral Rights and the Restructuring of Political Space (Cambridge University Press 2007); for the perspective of the free movement, see Willem Maas, ‘Free Movement and the Difference that Citizenship Makes’ in Antonio Varsori and Elena Calandri and Simone Paoli (eds), Peoples and Borders: Seventy Years of Movement of Persons in Europe, to Europe, from Europe (Baden-Baden: Nomos 2017) 91108. 15 For instance, Lionello Levi Sandri, the vice president of the European Commission, backed the free movement of workers over goods in order to support the emergence of European citizenship or a common European identity of ‘pride and strength’. To that effect see, Lionello L Sandri, ‘The Free Movement of Workers in the Countries of the European Economic Community’ (Bulletin EC 6/61 1961) 5−6.

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