Making European Citizens

Exploring a key aspect of European integration, this clear and thoughtful book considers the remarkable experiment with common rights and citizenship in the EU. Governments around the world traditionally distinguish insiders (citizens) from outsiders (foreigners). Yet over the past half-century, an extensive set of supranational rights has been created in Europe that removes member governments' authority to privilege their own citizens, a hallmark of sovereignty. The culmination of supranational rights, European citizenship not only provides individuals with choices about where to live and work but also forces governments to respect those choices. Explaining this innovation--why states cede their sovereignty and eradicate or redefine the boundaries of the political community by including "foreigners"--Willem Maas analyzes the development of European citizenship within the larger context of the evolution of rights. Imagining more than simply a free trade market, the goal of building a "broader and deeper community among peoples" with a "destiny henceforward shared"--creating European citizens--has informed European integration since its origins. The author argues that its success or failure will not only determine the future of Europe but will also provide lessons for political integration elsewhere.

Making European Citizens examines the forms of transnational citizenship developing in Europe. Active citizenship involves more than simply voting. Achieving mobilization at a transnational level may involve new democratic techniques and skills. The volume explores how far European citizens have acquired the requisite methods and qualities.

Civil, economic, political and social rights are at the centre of the concept of European citizenship. In this volume, the focus is on the political-constitutional dimension of European citizen­ship, which is discussed from the perspective of several disciplines – history, constitutional law and political science. It provides a multi-faceted account of the evolution of European citizenship and its institutionalization, explaining why certain rights came into existence at a certain time and focussing on several key actors involved, such as the European Court of Justice.

The contributors to this study address the question of how political theory is relevant to the construction of new Europe and the tie-in issues of citizenship, social justice and political legitimacy. By using techniques of contemporary political theory, the book argues that the emergence of new Europe poses fundamental questions of value and principle and challenges more established political theories in the process.

The Making of the European Union argues that the process of European integration has drifted into serious crisis, perhaps the most serious since the Danes voted against the Treaty of the European Union in 1992. Analysing the conditions for European integration, this book applies a citizens' or 'bottom-up' perspective on the integration process. The difficulties that the constitutional process has encountered illustrate the relevance of bringing public opinion into the analysis of the prospects for European integration. The book describes and analyses the historical, mental, intellectual , and attitudinal denominators of European integration, denominators that have shaped the processes so far and will continue to do so in the future. The authors apply a broad comparative perspective, where European nation-states constitute the primary units of analysis. The focus is on the foundations of European integration, public views about the EU, including various shades of Euroscepticism, and the long-term prospects of the EU. This book will appeal to a wide audience including scholars and researchers in the social sciences - particularly political science, comparative politics and European studies. The book will also be of great interest to journalists and all those involved in the EU, including policy makers and civil servants throughout the EU itself.

This book maps out, from a variety of theoretical standpoints, the challenges generated by European integration and EU citizenship for community membership, belonging and polity-making beyond the state. It does so by focusing on three main issues of relevance for how EU citizenship has developed and its capacity to challenge state sovereignty and authority as the main loci of creating and delivering rights and protection. First, it looks at the relationship between citizenship of the Union and European identity and assesses how immigration and access to nationality in the Member States impact on the development of a common European identity. Secondly, it discusses how the idea of solidarity interacts with the boundaries of EU citizenship as constructed by the entitlement and capacity of mobile citizens to enjoy equality and social rights as EU citizens. Thirdly, the book engages with issues of EU citizenship and equality as the building blocks of the EU project. By engaging with these themes, this volume provides a topical and comprehensive account of the present and future development of Union citizenship and studies the collisions between the realisation of its constructive potential and Member State autonomy.

Six academics present papers on the conditions and prerequisites for a shared European democratic culture. It looks at such topics as nationalism and democratic citizenship, the importance of the coexistence of different cultural identities, rights and responsibilities and the decision-making procedures of European institutions.

Although EU citizenship may appear to be a straightforward and unproblematic matter – each citizen of a Member State is a citizen of the Union – there are in fact situations in which EU citizenship status can become a thorny issue, at times even determining the outcome of a case. Because the rights automatically recognized with nationality most clearly involve the fundamental right of moving and residing freely, the case law relating freedom of movement with EU citizenship status is extensive and reaches into many areas of practice at every level. Prompted by the declaration of 2013 as the ‘Year of Citizens’, the author of this book offers a detailed analysis of the rationales underlying the development of the EU citizenship concept, the directives and regulations that define citizen status, and the cases that have so far worked to clarify the meaning and limits of such status, all with particular attention to the obstacles that still come between the actual exercise of rights in everyday life. The multifarious issues raised include the following: the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the EU citizen’s status; changes introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon; limitations on Member States with regard to granting and revoking nationality; participation of EU citizens in the decision making processes governing the EU; right to recourse to the European Ombudsman; right of access to documents; registration at a host Member State’s competent public offices; limitations of entry due to reasons of public policy, public security, and public health; procedural safeguards in the case of measures limiting freedom of movement; the condition of migrant workers; restrictions to freedom of movement for ‘employment in the public sector’; and the condition of family members of EU citizens. An appendix gathers legislative documents most often cited in the case law. Closely examining the various institutions concerned, case law (Member State as well as Court of Justice), and legislative innovations, the author concentrates on identifying and overcoming those obstacles that still prevent full enjoyment of EU citizenship rights. While the clear demarcation of issues will be of especial practical value in anti-discrimination cases, legal academics and jurists will appreciate the book’s signal new contribution to a classic theme of the European Union.