Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

be a citizen of the Union.’, 166 it is unarguably more than apparent that the only way to become a Union citizen is through obtaining nationality of one of the Member States, as emphasised by the Commission: ‘There is no separate way of acquiring citizenship of the Union.’ 167 The relevant, if not the most significant, role in the origin of Union citizenship, thus, in its acquisition is therefore played by the Member States’ nationalities, which serve as so-called ‘gateway[s]’. 168 These gateways however do not stand on one uniform European Union act, which would enshrine stipulations of access, acquisition or loss, but instead, due to the falling within the exclusive competence of the Member States, on twenty-seven different legal orders, the provisions of which differ. 169 Moreover, that has been underlined by the Declaration on the nationality of a Member State amended to the Treaty on European Union as that ‘the question whether an individual possesses the nationality of a Member State shall be settled solely by reference to the national law of the Member State concerned’. 170 Notwithstanding that, the Court of Justice has several times entered the waters of an already-former prerogative of sovereign states, which has been presented in more detail in the historical research of Chapter 1. 171 For these reasons, a look at the origin of Union citizenship as the form-status is taken from the acquisition of nationalities of the Member States — first, at the general scholarship on nationality law in terms of the origin, such as ius soli , ius sanguinis and other rules — second, at a concise overview of how the form-status of Union citizenship actually emerges heterogeneously by virtue of those rules. 166 Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2012] OJ 326/47, article 20. 167 Commission, ‘Third Report from the Commission on Citizenship of the Union’ COM(2001) 506 final 7. 168 Hanneke van Eijken and Pauline Phoa, ‘Chapter 5: Nationality and EU citizenship: strong tether or slipping anchor?’ in Civil Rights and EU Citizenship (Edward Elgar Publishing 2018) 99. 169 Ibid 103. 170 See note 15 above; in addition, see Treaty on European Union [1992] OJ C 191, Declaration on nationality of a Member State. On challenging Member States’ nationality laws by the Court of Justice, see Jo Shaw (ed), ‘Has the European Court of Justice Challenged Member State Sovereignty in Nationality Law?’ (2011) 2011/62 EUI Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies accessed 1 st May 2023. 171 See Chapter 1.2.2. Court of Justice’s Interventions above.

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