Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

UBI UNIO IBI CIVIS UBI CIVIS IBI UNIO

INTRODUCTION 1 At the turn of the first and second decade of our century, by that time, an Estonian national was enjoying, as a citizen of the Union, 2 freedoms and rights which flowed for her from the European Union legal order. Nonetheless, she could not have even presumed that one day she would be deprived of these rights and freedoms as a result of the loss of her citizenship of the Union. 3 All necessary for that was only an intention to be fully integrated into the society of a host Member State by application for and acceptance of its nationality. Yet the host Member State was Austria, which, unfortunately for the Estonian national concerned, has been a party to the Convention on the Reduction of Cases of Multiple Nationality; 4 wherefore, Austria does not allow their nationals to hold dual or multiple nationalities and, at the same time, does not grant its nationality to nationals of another state. 5 The Estonian national at issue persisted in her intention to become an Austrian national; hence, she applied for the nationality of Austria. The competent public authority gave her an assurance that she would be granted the Austrian nationality under the condition that she would submit that she had renounced the nationality of Estonia first. Her choice was none but to comply with the law. Having followed the required procedure, she relinquished her prior Estonian nationality, provided confirmation of that to the competent public authority, and was waiting for the new nationality — of Austria to be granted to her. Nevertheless, for she committed administrative offences, the competent authority revoked the decision of assurance and rejected her application for Austrian nationality. 6 All of a sudden, the once-Estonian national 1 The present monograph is based on the author’s Master’s Thesis, which received the highest honours during the defence and was recommended for publication by the supervisor’s review. This publication is funded by and dedicated to the Cooperatio Programme of the Charles University. 2 Hereinbelow referred to as ‘Union citizen’ also. 3 Hereinbelow referred to as ‘Union citizenship’ also. 4 Case C-118/20 Wiener Landesregierung [2021] EU:C:2022:34, Opinion of AG Szpunar, paragraphs 5−6. 5 § 10 (3) des Staatsbürgerschaftsgesetz, BGBl Nr 311/1985. 6 Case C-118/20 Wiener Landesregierung [2021] EU:C:2022:34, Opinion of AG Szpunar, paragraphs 18−22.

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