Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

of citizens’ initiative is the only one the exercise of which is truly nonvicarious by the Member States hitherto. Hence, it is this character of this right 281 that gives rise to the contentrights complement — directness — of the direct bond in Union citizenship.

281 Besides the other rights which are not exclusively connected to Union citizens; such as the rights to good administration, of access to documents, to refer to the European Ombudsman, and to petition the European Parliament. The exercise of them is also nonvicarious by the Member States. To that effect, see Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union [2008] OJ 326/391, articles 41-44. These rights give rise to the content-rights complement — directness also, but they can even exist on their own without the formstatus complement — bond, as their addressee is not only a Union citizen but also any natural or legal person residing or having registered office in a Member State. This leads to situations when rights are autonomous on the status of citizenship; for this purpose, see Linda Bosniak, ‘Constitutional Citizenship Through the Prism of Alienage’ (2002) 63/5 Ohio State Law Journal 1307.

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