Am I a citizen of the Union?
This is one of the questions that people affected by an eventual State succession within an EU Member State need an answer to. (Phd thesis)
Civis europaeus sum? Am I a citizen of the Union?
If Catalonia, Scotland or Flanders were to become independent, then this would undoubtedly be a unique event. This uniqueness is demonstrated by the fact that it would be the first case of the break-up of an EU Member State. And furthermore, the effects of the hypothetical independence of a devolved part of an EU Member State on the nationality of persons and their status as citizens of the Union raises novel legal issues, which cannot be addressed from the perspective of one legal order.
The secession of part of the territory of an EU Member State and its accession to the EU itself would have a significant impact on the enjoyment of one of the major achievements of the European integration process, i.e., the status of citizen of the Union. Thus, those who, due to the operation of the State succession and the rules enacted in that context regarding nationality, lose the nationality of the predecessor-EU Member State cannot invoke “civis europaeus sum”. From the outset, individuals who lose the nationality of an EU Member State would lose EU citizenship and the rights attached to it. However, whilst EU citizenship is still not autonomous from Member State nationality, certain rights in both the potential newly independent States and the EU Member States may be kept as an interim solution until such times as the former has completed the EU accession process. Although in a different setting, the findings are also of paramount importance for British citizens residing in other EU Member States at the moment of coming into effect of the “Brexit” and for EU citizens residing in Britain in that very moment.
Not only the enjoyment of the EU citizenship status by nationals of Member States involved in independence or separation process could be put at risk. Likewise, European citizens of other nationalities residing in the territory of the new State would also be affected, if not in their capacity as citizens of the Union, in the way of exercising certain rights granted by such status. The same could apply to third country nationals, citizens of other non-EU Member States residing in the new State, who also enjoy certain set of rights under the operation of EU law.
This blog was written by Guayasén Marrero González
Published on Law Blogs Maastricht
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