Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

of the European Union, which is not only another type of international legal regime but the entity sui generis . Wherefore, a closer look is taken at it and at the rights conferred onto its citizens. 4.2 Nonvicarious Rights Springing from European Union To prove the existence of the directness — content-rights complement in Union citizenship, it is necessary to ascertain whether there are rights provided to Union citizens nonvicariously by the Member States but directly by the European Union. Since it is not in the capacity of this monograph to assess every individual right which is conferred onto Union citizens, attention is paid exclusively to political rights, 261 namely: the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at municipal elections in the Member State in which he or she resides, 262 the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at elections to the European Parliament, 263 and the right of the European citizens’ initiative. 264 H. van Eijken and P. Phoa understand the entire concept of Union citizenship as ‘the “right to have rights” within the EU legal framework’; 265 for such 261 Political rights are selected from others because of their exclusivity for Union citizens; unlike them, the rights to good administration, of access to documents, to refer to the European Ombudsman, and to petition the European Parliament are not granted only to citizens of the Union, instead to any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State. To that effect, see Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union [2008] OJ 326/391, articles 41-44. Moreover, L. Bosniak states that voting, respectively, political rights are nowadays more than associated with citizenship; for this purpose, see Linda Bosniak, ‘Constitutional Citizenship Through the Prism of Alienage’ (2002) 63/5 Ohio State Law Journal 1307 accessed 19 th April 2023. 262 Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2008] OJ 326/47, article 22(1); and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union [2008] OJ 326/391, article 40. 263 For Union citizen who votes or stands as a candidate at elections in a Member State of his or her nationality: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union [2008] OJ 326/391, article 39(2), in conjunction of Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ 326/1, article 14(3), and Act concerning the election of the representatives of the Assembly by direct universal suffrage [2002] OJ L 278/5, article 1(3). For Union citizen who votes or stands as a candidate at elections in a Member State in which he or she resides: Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2008] OJ 326/47, article 22(2); and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union [2008] OJ 326/391, article 39(1). 264 Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2008] OJ 326/47, article 24(1); and Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ 326/1, article 11(4). 265 Hanneke van Eijken and Pauline Phoa, ‘Nationality and EU citizenship: strong tether or slipping anchor?’ in Civil Rights and EU Citizenship (Edward Elgar Publishing 2018) 100.

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