Union Citizenship

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 2 provides an overview of the defining legal features of Union citizenship, principally in relation to Articles 20 and 21 TFEU. EU citizenship law has deep foundations in EU law on the free movement of persons more generally. This chapter first shows how approaches, interests, and objectives that predated the creation of Union citizenship have strongly shaped—and continue to inform—Union citizenship’s legal framework. Discussion of the rights conferred by Articles 20 and 21 TFEU introduces the critical balancing task that the Treaty prescribes: between the rights conferred by Union citizenship, on the one hand, and the conditions and limits that may legitimately restrict them, on the other. In legislative terms, that task is progressed through Directive 2004/38, which regulates the right to move and reside in other Member States. Some of the main themes that emerge from the interpretation of EU citizenship law by the Court of Justice are then considered, including how a connecting factor to EU citizenship law is established, ensuring the effectiveness of Union citizenship rights, the significance of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the role of integration requirements in EU citizenship law, and the intersection of Union citizenship and matters that remain within Member State competence. Finally, the territory of the European Union as the ‘place’ within which Union citizenship is determined and experienced is considered, reflecting on the nature of both the internal and external borders of the Union’s territory through the example of case law on the extradition of Union citizens to third states. That discussion and the chapter more generally also encourage reflection on the connection between the territory of the Union and the values that construct and sustain it.