Date: 2014
Type: Article
The three levels of citizenship within the European Union
German Law Journal, 2014, Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 751-764
BAUBÖCK, Rainer, The three levels of citizenship within the European Union, German Law Journal, 2014, Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 751-764
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/34260
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
European Union citizenship is derived from Member State nationality. This fact often has been considered a “birth defect” to be overcome by either disconnecting EU citizenship from Member State citizenship or by reversing the relationship in a federal model so that Member State citizenship would be derived from that of the Union. I argue in this essay that derivative citizenship in a union of states can be defended as a potentially stable and democratically attractive basic feature of the architecture of the EU polity where EU citizenship is perceived of as one layer in a multi-level model of democratic membership in a union of states such as the EU. This perspective is not a defense of the status quo, but rather allows for—or even requires—a series of reforms addressing a number of inconsistencies and democratic deficiencies in the current citizenship regime.
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/34260
ISSN: 2071-8322
Published version: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/38468