Union Citizenship and the Home Member State

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 5 considers the rights of Union citizens in their home Member States. Most legal questions on Union citizenship concern Member State nationals present in another State—the host State—as well as relevant conditions and limitations. But the status of Union citizenship also reaches into situations where free movement rights were not exercised at all. Reflecting Article 10(3) TEU’s guarantee that ‘[e]very citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union’, this chapter first outlines the link between EU law and voting rights in the home State as well as the four procedures for citizen engagement in Article 24 TFEU: the European Citizens’ Initiative, the right to petition the European Parliament, applying to the European Ombudsman, and writing to Union institutions or bodies. The entitlement under Article 23 TFEU of Union citizens who are present in the territory of a third country to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities of any Member State is also addressed, since another State acts as home State ‘surrogate’ in such circumstances. Residence rights for family members in a Union citizen’s home State are more controversial, implanting a role for EU law in what might be perceived as situations that should fall only within the scope of national immigration competence. Nevertheless, a right of residence cannot be refused to a third-country national family member in a Union citizen’s home State if, otherwise, the Union citizen would be obliged to leave the territory of the Union.