The Treaty of the European Union or Treaty of
Maastricht established the Citizenship
of the Union. The foremost purpose of the institutionalisation of this new
legal status was, according to Community institutions, to strengthen and enhance
the European identity and enable European citizens to participate in the
Community integration process in a more intense way.
European citizen's condition was reserved to every person that had the nationality of a
member State.
The European citizenship didn't substitute but rather supplemented the citizenship of each
State. In consequence, laws of each State -quite different in many cases - were
to regulate the way to access to the Citizenship
of the Union.
"Citizenship of the Union is hereby
established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a
citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall complement and not replace
national citizenship.'
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997
Member States citizens already enjoyed a series of rights on
account of the application of the laws that regulate the European common market (free
movement of goods and
services, consumer protection, public health, equal
opportunities...).
The Citizenship
of the Union established some rights that are added to all the previous one.
Basically, they can be summarised in the following ones:
Article 18 (ex
Article 8a)
1. Every citizen of the Union shall have
the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States,
subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in this Treaty and by the
measures adopted to give it effect.
Treaty of Nice, 2001
Article 19 (ex Article 8b)
1. Every citizen of the Union residing in a
Member State of which he is not a national shall have the right to vote and to
stand as a candidate at municipal elections in the Member State in which he
resides, under the same conditions as nationals of that State. This right shall
be exercised subject to detailed arrangements adopted by the Council, acting
unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European
Parliament; these arrangements may provide for derogations where warranted by
problems specific to a Member State.
2. (...) every citizen of the Union
residing in a Member State of which he is not a national shall have the right to
vote and to stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament in the
Member State in which he resides, under the same conditions as nationals of that
State (...)
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997
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Elections to the
European Parliament |
Article 20 (ex Article 8c)
Every citizen of the Union shall, in the
territory of a third country in which the Member State of which he is a national
is not represented, be entitled to protection by the diplomatic or consular
authorities of any Member State, on the same conditions as the nationals of that
State. Member States shall establish the necessary rules among themselves and
start the international negotiations required to secure this protection.
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997
Article 21 (ex Article 8d)
Every citizen of the Union shall have the
right to petition the European Parliament (...)
Every citizen of the Union may
apply to the Ombudsman (...)
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997
To these rights, the Treaty
of Amsterdam added other
two less important new rights:
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Right of writing to the European institutions in one of the official languages
(Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, English, Gaelic Irish, Dutch, German,
Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Greek) and being answered in that same
language.
Every citizen of the Union may write to
any of the institutions or bodies referred to in this Article or in Article 7
in one of the languages mentioned in Article 314 and have an answer in the
same language.
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997
These last two rights, as well as petition right to the Parliament and
application to the Ombudsman, are also applicable to every resident in the
member States, although not being nationals of them.
So far, the Citizenship
of the Union, contrary to national citizenship, does not impose any duty to the citizens of the member States.
The Citizenship
of the Union is considered as a legal status to be developed
and, this way, the Commission
must present
every three years to the Parliament, the
Council and the
Economic and
Social Committee, a report on the application of the dispositions of the Second Part
of the Treaty, which all articles related to the European citizenship are
included in.
The Second report on the Citizenship
of the Union, emitted by the Commission in 1997, emphasized the need of developing all the
measures regarding the free movement of European citizens within the EU. The report
pointed out the necessity to improve the information that citizens receive about
their rights to free movement and residence.
One of the initiatives to improve this information
on European citizens' rights, was the setting up of a web site Citizens.
This site provides an eminently practical information.
From a much more political position, the European Parliament approved in 1988 a Resolution on the Second Report of the Commission
that affirmed that:
"Citizenship of the Union is (...) a dynamic
institution, key in the process of European integration, and that is expected to
extend and complement gradually the rights granted to the individuals by
their belonging as nationals to a member State (...)
In this resolution, MPs proposed a wide set of measures bound to
broaden the rights granted to the European citizens.
Next to the new legal statute of the Citizenship
of the Union, we should include the different advances that the Treaty
of Amsterdam proclaimed with regard to human rights.
Other rights guaranteed within the Union are:
Article 12 (ex Article 6)
Within the scope of application of this
Treaty, and without prejudice to any special provisions contained therein, any
discrimination on grounds of nationality shall be prohibited.
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997
Article 13 (ex Article 6a)
Without prejudice to the other provisions
of this Treaty and within the limits of the powers conferred by it upon the
Community, the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and
after consulting the European Parliament, may take appropriate action to combat
discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief,
disability, age or sexual orientation.
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997
Finally, it is necessary to highlight that the Commission
has emphasised the fact that education will be the key element
for building the European citizenship.
The rights introduced in Maastricht and included in the Treaty
of Amsterdam constitute the beginning of a process that, from a pro-Europe
view, will lead to a Citizenship
of the Union whose rights and duties will be connected to daily life and
will be the base on Europeans will support a significant part of their identity.
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European students
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In 1995, the Commission
set up a Group of Reflection on Education and Formation, constituted by 25 independent experts of the fifteen
member countries and presided over then by a French member of the Commission, Edith Cresson.
In December 1996, this panel subscribed a report titled Building Europe by means of
Education and Training.
The following year, in December of 1998, the Commission
approved a document titled Learning for active citizenship. Edith Cresson
claimed in the foreword:
"The fostering of
competencies and convictions capable of enhancing the quality of social
relations rests on the natural alliance of education and training with
equality and social justice. Citizenship with a European dimension is anchored
in the shared creation of a voluntary community of peoples, of different
cultures and of different traditions - the creation of a democratic society
which has learned to embrace diversity sincerely as a positive opportunity, a
society of openness and solidarity for each and every one of us"
