Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

we must make Europeans.’ 145 The answer to the partial research question — whether the genuine link is the essence of Union citizenship, and whether the factual relationship is of the quality that would give rise to

the factual relation — be hence no. 2.2 Legal Relation: Direct Bond

If it is not possible to find the essence of Union citizenship in the factual relation between the Union and a citizen, presented above as the genuine link, it is thus inevitable and appropriate to delve into a purely legalistic approach, which is also prompted by the fact that Union citizenship is primarily a legal concept. On the basis of the normative legal theory and H. Kelsen’s postulates, citizenship of the Union may be defined as a legal relationship, respectively, a public legal relationship. That is to be defined ‘as the relation[ship] between legal subjects’ 146 and ‘the relation[ship] between superior and inferior (between state [or entity] and subject [or individual])’. 147 In this chapter and onwards, the author wherefore develops a theory of the direct bond — the essence by virtue of a true legal relation between an entity and a citizen. Union citizenship has previously been described as a direct bond indeed. For instance, Advocate General C. Villalón states that ‘European citizenship is evolving […] as a direct bond between the citizen and the Union’. 148, 149 Nevertheless, a direct bond has been 145 In the original wording: ‘L‘Italia è fatta. Restano da fare gli italiani.’. To that effect, see Charles L Killinger, The History of Italy (Greenwood 2002) 1. First paraphrased in the European meaning by P. Huyst as: ‘We have made Europe, now we have to make Europeans’ in Petra Huyst, ‘“We have made Europe, now we have to make Europeans”: Researching European Identity among Flemish Youths’ (2008) 4/1 JCER accessed 15 th April 2023. 146 Emphasis added by the author. Hans Kelsen, The Pure Theory of Law (translated by Max Knight, University of California Press 1970) 163. 147 Emphasis added by the author. Ibid 164. 148 Case C-47/08 Commission v Belgium [2010] ECLI:EU:C:2011:334, Opinion of AG Villalón paragraph 137. Case C-47/08 was one of many others regarding access to the profession of a notary on a national prerequisite. The Advocate General stood the position that the limitation of access to the profession of a notary only for Member States’ nationals is against the obligation under Article 49 TFEU — freedom of establishment. That approach was subsequently followed by the Court of Justice. For this purpose, see Case C-47/08 Commission v Belgium [2010] ECLI:EU:C:2011:334. 149 Or D. Kostakopoulou mentions a direct bond between the European Union legal order and Union citizens in her work on how to handle the legal position of Britons after ‘Brexit’; nonetheless, this approach vastly differs from the one presented by the author as that one is solely focused on Union citizens who have not spoken for leaving the EU, even though collectively. To that effect, see Dora Kostakopoulou,

37