Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

order not to displace the nationality of a Member State but instead to strengthen it. 67 After all these demands, 68 it could not be wondered why the first draft of the Constitution enshrined Union citizenship more than revolutionarily, as follows: Every citizen of a Member State is a citizen of the Union; enjoys dual citizenship , national citizenship and European citizenship; and is free to use either, as he or she chooses; with the rights and duties attaching to each. 69 At first sight, it is indeed apparent that the relationship between the nationality of a Member State, on the one side, and citizenship of the Union, on the other, would have been significantly reformed — from complementarity to an autonomous status, whereby the European Union would have headed in the direction of a true federal state same as others where citizens or nationals possess similar vertical-dual citizenships or nationalities. This transformation or renarrative would have undoubtedly been the most substantial step towards the idea of European federalism. With such a radical proposal, the backlash could not have been longawaited; it occurred ultimately amongst the Danish Eurosceptic party, the member and MEP of which made a simile between the potential citizenship of the Union by virtue of the Constitution and citizenship of Bavaria — just as the German nationality takes precedence over Bavarian citizenship, so would Union citizenship take precedence over the nationality of a Member state. 70 67 Ibid. 68 Exempli gratia , Representatives of the Committee of the Regions supported the approach of the Commission and suggested that citizenship of the Union should be materialised in rights in the newly enacted Charter of Fundamental Rights into primary law. The European Youth Convention, on top of that, proposed an introduction of EU passport same for all Member States. The Dutch government, paradoxically for the future ‘no’ in the referendum, suggested strengthening European competencies in the field of education in order to create and shape a genuine European identity. To that effect, see Willem Maas, Creating European Citizens (Rowman & Littlefield 2007) 83-85. 69 Emphasis added by the author. Preliminary draft Constitutional Treaty [2002] CONV 369/02 Article 5. 70 Willem Maas, Creating European Citizens (Rowman & Littlefield 2007). W. Mass cites that MEP here: ‘EU citizenship can grow. National citizenship can be removed to the museums.’ For this purpose, see Jens-Peter Bonde, ‘Nation States Get Same Status as Bavaria!’ EU Observer (5 th November 2002).

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