Describe about the Law of European Union.
The European Union citizenship first emerged or rather introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht that was signed in the year of 1992. The treaty came into effect in the year of 1993. The citizenship of European Union is subsidiary to the to the citizenship that is national and in addition to that it afford those rights that includes voting rights in the elections of Europe. The rights also make the inclusion of the right relating to the free movement, employment and settlement across the European Union. The rights also include the right of consular protection that is rendered by the other states’ embassies of the European Union in case any person’s nation of citizenship do not have or maintain any consulate or an embassy in that nation where the protection is required.
The freedom of movement of the persons that is considered to be the one of the four rights of freedom are considered in Section 26 of the TFEU. Article 18 of the Said Treaty makes the dealing with the rights that are associated with non discrimination on the sole grounds of nationality. Article 20 deals with the creation of the citizenship of the European Union. Article 21 deals with the movement of the citizens of the European Union that are free and subject to certain limitations and conditions.
The citizenship of the European Union was considered a distinct concept when it got its first introduction through the Maastricht Treaty. The concept got extended through the Amsterdam Treaty. In the earlier time that is before the year of 1992 the right to freedom of movement was subject to be guaranteed by the treaties of the European Communities[1]. Through that treaty, the right of the freedom of movement was granted to the general persons who are active economically and not the others. The Paris Treaty of the year 1951 made the establishment of the Community of European Steel and Coal that made the identification of the rights of the freedom of movement of the workers related to these industries. The Rome Treaty of the year of 1957 made the provision of the freedom of movement of the workers.
The European Court of Justice made the interpretation of the provisions of the treaty as not having a narrow purpose economically, but having a broader economic and social purpose. In the case of Levin[2], it was held by the Court, that the right of the free movement is of primary importance as that right did not only intend to make the establishment of the single market for benefitting the economies of the member states but they intend to raise the living standard of the workers. Under the case law of the European Court of Justice, the rights of the freedom of movement of the workers apply only to those workers who take up employment abroad and that employment could be either full-time or part-time[3]. Such rights are significant regardless of the fact whether the worker is of any need of assistance in the financial terms in the member nation where he moves. There was the existence of the elements of non-discrimination before the Maastricht Treaty under Article 12 of the Treaty of the European Community. This is because the Court of Justice of Europe previously held that the recipient of any service bears the right of free movement. Such right existed among every member nation state working whether active economically or not.
In the case of Martinez Sala[4], the European Justice Court made the decision that the provisions of citizenship grant the right of free movement that is substantive in nature. Such rights are in addition to those rights that were granted already by the law of the Union.
The primary benefit that lies in being the citizen of the European Union is the right of the freedom of movement. The right of free movement makes the application to the citizens of the areas of economic Europe and also Switzerland. Since, the establishment of the concept of the citizenship of the European Union, there were several political rights that came into the picture[5]. The Treaty of Functioning of the European Union makes the provision for the citizens for being represented directly at the level of Union in the Parliament of Europe. Such provision also grants the right to make the participation in the life relation to democracy of the European Union[6].
The primary political right is the right to vote in the lections of Europe. Such rights were granted under Article 22 of the European Union Treaty. According to that Article, there stands a right to cast the vote and also stand in the elections of the Parliament of Europe in any member nation of the European Union. The next political right relates to the right of voting in the elections of a municipality. Such right is granted through the Article 22 of the European Union Treaty. According to that Article, there lies the right to cast the vote and in addition to that also stand in the elections that are local in any state of the European Union other than the state of their own. Such participation must be in accordance with the similar conditions that are imposed on the nationals of such state. The third political right is the right to have the access the documents of the government of Europe. Such right is granted through Article 15 of the European Union Treaty. According to that article, there is the right to make the access to the documents of the Parliament of Europe, Commission, and Council. The fourth political right relates to the petitioning the Parliament and Ombudsman[7]. Such right is granted under Article 24 of the European Union Treaty. In accordance with that Article, there lies the right to make the petition to the Parliament of Europe. The article also grants the right to make the application of the Ombudsman of Europe for bringing the cases of ill administration to the attention of the bodies and institutions of the European Union[8]. The same Article also grants the rights of language. The Article grants the right to make the application to the institution of European Union in any of languages that are official and also to get the reply in that language in which the application is made.
There are several rights of freedom of movement. The first right of relating to the freedom of movement is the right to make the residence and movement that is free. Article 21 of the European Union Treaty grants this right. According to that article, there lies the right of freedom of residence and movement that exists throughout the territories of the European Union. The Article also grants the right to work or get employed in any position. Such position includes the position in the national civil services that makes the exception of the posts that exists in public sector, which makes the involvement of the power exercise that is conferred by the public law.
The next right relating to the freedom of movement is the right of freedom from the discrimination on the basis of nationality. Such right was enshrined in Article 18 of the European Union Treaty[9]. In accordance to that Article, there lies the right to any person of not discriminated on the grounds of his or her nationality that lies within the application scope of the Treaty.
The European Union Treaty through Article 23 provides the right of consular protection. In accordance to that article, there is the right of getting protection of the diplomatic authorities or the consular of any other member nation when they are in any non-member State of the European Union. Such right is applicable in cases where there exists no consular or diplomatic authorities from the own State of the citizen. This is because not every member nation maintains their embassies everywhere in world[10].
The first subsection of Article 21 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union makes the express statement that every Citizen who belongs to the European Union should have the right for moving freely and reside within the territories of the Member Nations. However, such right is subject to certain conditions and limitations that are given in the Treaty in addition to the measures that are adopted for giving effect that right. In relation to this right, the European Court of Justice made the statement that the Citizenship of the European Union is designed to be the primary status of the nationals of the Member Nation. The Court of Justice of Europe made the decision that the said Article makes the conferring of the right that is effective and is direct upon the citizens who are residing in any other Member nation. It was considered widely before the case of Baumbast[11], that the citizens who are not active economically, do not have the right of residence that derives from the Treaty of European Union directly from the directives that are created under that Treaty. In the case of Baumbast, the European Court of Justice made the decision that Article 18 of the Treaty grants the right to residency that is applicable in the general sense and also limited by secondary legislation. The limitation is applicable only in those cases where the legislation, which is secondary, is proportionate. The Member nations could make the distinction between their nationals and the citizens of the European Union only in those conditions when the provisions make the satisfaction of the proportionality test. The citizens of the European who are migrant is expected to have a solidarity that is related to finance to some degree[12]. Such solidarity must be in regard of those citizens integration degree to the society of the host country. The time length is also considered as a factor that is important while making the consideration of the integration degree. There has been a huge criticism of the case laws of the European Court of Justice for increasing the number of the national rules that are related with the assessment of proportionality.
The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union through Article 45 makes the express statement that the rights of the free movement of the workers need to be secured with the European Union. The Article also depicts that the said freedom should entail abolition of discrimination that is based on nationality between the employees of the Member nations as regard to remuneration, employment and the conditions of employment and work[13]. The State employment that are reserved exclusively for the nationals differs between the Member nations. For instance, the barrister training in the territory of Ireland and Britain is not reserved for the nationals, while the similar course in France makes the qualification of anyone as judge and can be pursued only by the citizens of France[14]. However, the factor of employment is limited widely to the roles that make the exercise of that degree of authority of public that is significant[15]. For example, the posts of judges, diplomats of military, politicians etc. It is also the factor to note that not every member nation makes the choice of restricting these posts to the nationals.
In the Directive 2004/38, the rights of citizenship are enshrined. Recital 3 of the Echoes of the European Court of Justice states that the citizenship of the European Union should be the primary status of the member nation nationals. In Article 21 of the TFEU gives the clarification about importance of the development of the concepts of the citizenship in the European Union centrally. The said Directive is involved in granting the rights to reside in any of the member nations of the European Union for more than a period of three months. The rights make the application on the workers, the persons who are self employed, students, independent persons and their members of the family. There are distinctions that are significant between the members of the family members who are the citizens of the European Union. The scope of the family member also makes the extension in making the inclusion of the partners who are registered. Under the said Directive there are also protection that renders the protection against expulsion. Once upon the rights of permanent residence are acquired, there can be no decision of expulsion that may be taken against the family members or the citizens of the European Union except in cases of security and public policy.
It is to be noted that the new members of the European Union may undergo the regimes that are transitional during the time when their nationals are capable to make the enjoyment of the access to the markets of labor that are restricted in the other Member nations. The Member nations of the European Union are given the permission to maintain the restrictions on the citizens of the countries that are acceded recently for a period of maximum seven years after that accession. The nations such as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein form the EFTA States. The said restriction for these EFTA States is maximum of nine years[16].
The time that followed the enlargement of 2004, it was seen the three member nations who are old such as United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden made the decision to make the allowance of the access to their markets of labor that are unrestricted. In the year of 2009, all the Member Nations made the lifting of the restrictions with the exception of Germany and Austria. Germany and Austria also lifted their restrictions by the end of the year 2011[17].
The time that followed the enlargement of the year of 2004, it is seen that the member nations prior to the year of 2004 with exception of Sweden and Finland made the imposition of the restrictions on the citizens of Romania and Bulgaria. It was also the same that is done by the two member states such as Hungary and Malta that joined the Union in the year of 2004[18]. By the time expiry of the month of November, except eight of the countries of the European Union lifted the restrictions entirely. The said restrictions also ended on the 1st January of the year 2014. The labor market of Norway became open in the month of July in the year 2012. The restrictions were kept in place by the nations Lichtenstein and Switzerland till 2016.
The time that followed the enlargement that took place in the year of 2013, several countries made the implementation of the restrictions on the nationals of the Croatia because of the accession of the country to that of European Union on the 1st of July of the year 2013. By the expiry of 2013, all countries lifted the restrictions except thirteen countries entirely. There has been a bill that has been announced regarding this effect by the Home Office of the United Kingdom[19].
There has been no common policy of the European Union on the factor of acquisition of the citizenship of Europe as it is considered supplementary to the citizenship of any nation. In accordance to Article 20 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, one cannot become a citizen of the European Union unless he or she is the national of any of the Member Nation of the European Union. The said Article provides expressly that every person who holds or has the nationality of any the Member States of the European Union should considered to be the citizen of that of the Union. The Article also mentions that the citizenship of the European Union should in addition to the nationality of its member nations and should not replace under any circumstances the citizenship, which is national.
It is mentioned already that the nationals of the Member Nations of the European Union are the members of the European Union. It has been regarded as the duty of each member nation of the European Union to have the due regard to the law of the Union for laying down the conditions relating to loss and acquisition of nationality[20]. Hence, it can be said that there exists a wide variety of the practices and the rules that is in relation to the loss and acquisition and loss of citizenship in the member nations of the European Union[21].
The exceptions of the rule of free movement refers to the fact that any member state may withheld the citizenship of the European Union from several groups of citizens that are mostly in the territories that are overseas of the Member nations and that is outside the European Union[22]. For instance, the complexity that lies in the British Nationality Law regarding the definition of British Citizens. In accordance to that law, the Government of the United Kingdom made the declaration regarding the fact that who would be regarded as the national of Britain for the purposes of the European Union. The definition provides that those persons would be regarded as the British National who are British Citizens as mentioned by the first part of the British Nationality Act of the year 1981[23]. The British Subjects who lies within the meaning of the fourth part of the British Nationality Act of 1981 should be considered as British national only if such citizens have the right of abode that is under the immigration law of the United Kingdom. The citizens of Britain of the overseas territories who made the derivation of the citizenship in connection with Gibraltar should also be considered as the British National.
The said law is therefore makes the exclusion from the citizenship of the European Union the several categories of the citizenship of Britain that are associated generally with the previous colonies of Britain. This includes the British Nationals who are in overseas, the British Citizens Overseas, the Protected Person of Britain and the Britain Subject that do not have that right of abode under the immigration law of the United Kingdom[24].
The enactment of the legislation named the British Overseas Territories Act in the year of 2002 made the extension of the citizenship of the European Union to almost all the citizens of Britain who are residing overseas. This has made the granting of the full rights of citizenship of the European Union that includes the freedom of movement to those citizens, but the right of voting in the Parliament of Europe only belongs to the residents of the territory of Gibraltar.
Conclusion
The primary aim of making this assignment is to make the presentation of the legal analysis of the citizenship conception of the European Union. In the case laws that were provided by the European Court of Justice made the inclusion of the rights of free movement of persons and free residence of the people of the European Union in between the Member States. The law states that any person has to be the citizen of any member nation of the European Union for getting the citizenship of the European Union.
The status or the position of the citizenship of the European Union is significant and evident both in the Directive of 2004/38 and in the case laws of the European Court of Justice in making the extension of the rights of free movement. However, there remain the important limitations and the qualification still regarding such rights.
Reference List
Beetham, David, and Christopher Lord. Legitimacy and the European Union. Routledge, 2014.
Bulmer, Simon, and Christian Lequesne. The member states of the European Union. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Case 53/81 D.M. Levin v Staatssecretaris van Justitie.
Case C-413/99 Baumbast and R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, para. [85]-[91].
Case C-85/96 María Martínez Sala v Freistaat Bayern.
Cini, Michelle, and Nieves Pérez-Solórzano Borragán. European union politics. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Conti, Nicolò, Maurizio Cotta, and Pedro Tavares de Almeida, eds.Perspectives of national elites on European citizenship: A South European view. Routledge, 2014.
Cowles, Maria Green, James A. Caporaso, and Thomas Risse-Kappen.Transforming Europe: Europeanization and domestic change. Cornell University Press, 2001.
Currie, Samantha. Migration, work and citizenship in the enlarged European Union. Routledge, 2016.
Cygan, Adam. “Citizenship of the European Union.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 62.02 (2013): 492-501.
Cygan, Adam. “Citizenship of the European Union.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 62.02 (2013): 492-501.
Faist, Thomas. “Social citizenship in the European Union: nested membership.” JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 39.1 (2001): 37-58.
Hollifield, James, Philip Martin, and Pia Orrenius. Controlling immigration: A global perspective. Stanford University Press, 2014.
Horspool, Margot, and Matthew Humphreys. European Union Law. Oxford University Press, 2012.
Jacobs, Francis G. “Citizenship of the European Union—A legal analysis.”European Law Journal 13.5 (2007): 591-610.
Keyman, Fuat, and Ahmet Içduygu. Citizenship in a global world: European questions and Turkish experiences. Routledge, 2013.
Lord, Christopher. A democratic audit of the European Union. Springer, 2016.
Martiniello, Marco. Citizenship of the European Union. A critical view. na, 1994.
McCormick, John. Understanding the European Union: a concise introduction. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Milana, Marcella, and Massimiliano Tarozzi. “It’s about us! Reflections on Education for Active Citizenship within the European Union.” Education 58.6 (2013): 777-797.
ÖniÅŸ, Ziya. “8 Entrepreneurs, citizenship and the European Union.”Citizenship in a Global World: European Questions and Turkish Experiences(2013): 173.
Roche, Maurice, and Rik Van Berkel, eds. European citizenship and social exclusion. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997.
Streeck, Wolfgang. of Book: European Citizenship Between National Legacies and Postnational Projects. Oxford University Press, 2001.
Wallace, Helen, Mark A. Pollack, and Alasdair R. Young, eds. Policy-making in the European Union. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.
[1] Beetham, David, and Christopher Lord. Legitimacy and the European Union. Routledge, 2014.
[2] Case 53/81 D.M. Levin v Staatssecretaris van Justitie.
[3] Bulmer, Simon, and Christian Lequesne. The member states of the European Union. Oxford University Press, 2013.
[4] Case C-85/96 María Martínez Sala v Freistaat Bayern.
[5] Cowles, Maria Green, James A. Caporaso, and Thomas Risse-Kappen.Transforming Europe: Europeanization and domestic change. Cornell University Press, 2001.
[6] Currie, Samantha. Migration, work and citizenship in the enlarged European Union. Routledge, 2016.
[7] Faist, Thomas. “Social citizenship in the European Union: nested membership.” JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 39.1 (2001): 37-58.
[8] Cygan, Adam. “Citizenship of the European Union.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 62.02 (2013): 492-501.
[9] Hollifield, James, Philip Martin, and Pia Orrenius. Controlling immigration: A global perspective. Stanford University Press, 2014.
[10] Cygan, Adam. “Citizenship of the European Union.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 62.02 (2013): 492-501.
[11] Case C-413/99 Baumbast and R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, para. [85]-[91].
[12] Horspool, Margot, and Matthew Humphreys. European Union Law. Oxford University Press, 2012.
[13] Jacobs, Francis G. “Citizenship of the European Union—A legal analysis.”European Law Journal 13.5 (2007): 591-610.
[14] Wallace, Helen, Mark A. Pollack, and Alasdair R. Young, eds. Policy-making in the European Union. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.
[15] Keyman, Fuat, and Ahmet Içduygu. Citizenship in a global world: European questions and Turkish experiences. Routledge, 2013.
[16] Lord, Christopher. A democratic audit of the European Union. Springer, 2016.
[17] Wallace, Helen, Mark A. Pollack, and Alasdair R. Young, eds. Policy-making in the European Union. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.
[18] Martiniello, Marco. Citizenship of the European Union. A critical view. na, 1994.
[19] Milana, Marcella, and Massimiliano Tarozzi. “It’s about us! Reflections on Education for Active Citizenship within the European Union.” Education 58.6 (2013): 777-797.
[20] ÖniÅŸ, Ziya. “8 Entrepreneurs, citizenship and the European Union.”Citizenship in a Global World: European Questions and Turkish Experiences(2013): 173.
[21] Streeck, Wolfgang. of Book: European Citizenship Between National Legacies and Postnational Projects. Oxford University Press, 2001.
[22] Roche, Maurice, and Rik Van Berkel, eds. European citizenship and social exclusion. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997.
[23] Streeck, Wolfgang. of Book: European Citizenship Between National Legacies and Postnational Projects. Oxford University Press, 2001.
[24] Wallace, Helen, Mark A. Pollack, and Alasdair R. Young, eds. Policy-making in the European Union. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download