Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

Member State’s nationals become citizens of the Union; however, what is apparent and noteworthy is that this is the only case when the emergence and acquisition of nationality are severed from the emergence and acquisition of citizenship of the Union, 200 in all other cases the relationship between them is of a dependent nature. A different approach is taken by authors who support and defend the idea of ‘postnational citizenship’, which firstly and seriously entered the citizenship scholarship with Y. N. Soysal’s work. 201 Given that the book was published during the enthusiastic period after the end of the Cold War, during the end of history, 202 she argued for a kind of citizenship that would not be a membership that is based on nationhood but instead on personhood, 203 and she saw it emerging in the borderless European Union, in citizenship of the Union. 204 The accurate materialisation of this idea was the proposal by the Liberal Forum party from Austria during the negotiations over the Treaty of Amsterdam, as abovementioned, 205 which suggested that Union citizenship be granted to every individual who resides in the European Union legally for five years, regardless of whether he or she is a Member State’s or a third-country national. In that case, the rule of the acquisition of Union citizenship would not be exclusively ius tractum but also ius domicilii — in that case, citizenship of the Union could be acquired separately from the nationality of a Member State. Nonetheless, the author cannot agree with this approach since he himself pursues to move within the limits of the positive law, which this idea cannot meet, as it would require a significant change in the Treaties. 206 The author is hence of the opinion that the derivativeness of the acquisition of Union citizenship is inevitable, thus, ius tractum is a perfect depiction of it. 200 Ibid. 201 Yasemin Nuhoglu Soysal, Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Postnational Membership in Europe (University of Chicago Press 1994). 202 A reference to the F. Fukuyama promulgation of the final victory of liberal democracy as the system which will prevail eventually everywhere. To that effect, see Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (Free Press u.a. 1992). 203 Yasemin Nuhoglu Soysal, Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Postnational Membership in Europe (University of Chicago Press 1994) 137. 204 Ibid 164. 205 See note 46 above. 206 Other practical problems and consequences are mentioned by M. Svobodová, exempli gratia , that kind of Union citizenship would be difficult to enforce, would not be internationally recognised or would not have reciprocal character. To that effect, see Magdaléna Svobodová, Občanství Evropské Unie (Auditorium 2021) 318−319.

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