Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

the termination of the form-status of Union citizenship. Nonetheless, the author finds a little disagreement in the understanding of the sole existence of the form-status of Union citizenship with the Court since it declares that ‘possession of the nationality of a Member State is an essential condition for a person to be able to […] retain the status of citizen of the Union’. 250 It cannot be said that the Court of Justice would be completely erroneous; however, the devil is in detail. According to the theory of legal relationships and the framework abovepresented, possession, respectively, ‘non-possession’ of the Member State’s nationality are relevant only at the point of the emergence or at the point of the termination. Whence it follows that possession of the nationality of a Member State is indeed crucial to retain the formstatus of Union citizenship because the latter is lost with the loss of the former; nonetheless, between those two points in time — the emergence and the termination of such a legal relationship — the form-status is completely autonomous on the Member State’s nationality. Yet, these little nuances may be crucial since ‘grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie und grün des Lebens goldner Baum‘. 251 For the green tree of life creates circumstances which theoretics cannot foresee, the legal practice might face a case where this fine distinction finds its place. The author would consider a situation, exempli gratia , when a Member State would introduce some sort of seminationality whereby it would intend to suspend access to citizenship of the Union, either to the form-status or, more practically, to the content-rights. In such a case, the Court of Justice ought to promulgate that access either to the formstatus or to the content-rights must be secured on the basis of the autonomous existence of the legal relationship, moreover, in this constellation, by virtue of the qualified legal relation in the form of the direct bond. And that is because the legal relationship of Union citizenship would not be terminated as the legal title for termination would not intersect with the relevant legal fact of ‘nonpossession’ of the Member State’s nationality. The last point aims eventually to the beginning. In the assessment of the matter at issue, the author has decided to assume a pure and formalistic approach, the approach which is closest to his perception 250 Ibid 57. 251 ‘All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of actual life springs ever green.’ To that effect, see Johann W von Goethe, Faust. Der Tragödie erster Teil (1808) Studierzimmer. For the purpose of the translation, see Susan Ratcliffe (ed), Oxford Essential Quotations (6 th edition, Oxford University Press 2018).

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