Citizenship in EU Closer connection to classical origins; not so - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Citizenship in EU

• Closer connection to classical origins; not so (obviously)

dependent on modern state

• More self-confident discourse from European institutions

(especially since Maastricht -1992 and formal introduction

• f legal citizenship)

Core features of citizenship

• (LEGAL) STATUS
• (POLITICAL) AGENCY
• (SOCIAL) IDENTITY
• ONE SINGLE INTEGRATED TITLE OF CITIZEN

QUALITIES OF CITIZENSHIP

• Particular polity
• Integrated title (see previous slide)
• Special association
• Exclusive or predominant link

Why exclusive or predominant link?

• Special allegiance

Where conflict or divergence of perspectives between polities, we align ourselves with one polity rather than another,

• Superordinate or organising public identity

Citizenship is a kind of compass - an orienteering equipment for our public selves

Challenge of EU Citizenship

• Compulsory duality/plurality

How does this square with?

• Double singularity

(i.e. singularity or integrity of citizenship title AND singularity of citizen’s relationship with a particular polity

EU Citizenship Options

• Consolidation and spread of liberal national citizenship
• Supranational citizenship supplants and succeeds national

citizenship

• European citizenship as a composite category

All three options unduly reductive, so fourth option

• Citizenship PLUS denizenship (as a supplementary public

identity facilitated by EU citizenship)

Consolidating National Citizenship

• Guards against external aggression, exclusionary culture,

and discrimination against internal minorities

• Spreads to Southern, Central and Eastern Europe in

waves of Enlargement BUT

• Disregards supranational identity as a self-standing value
• Tends to ignore ‘third country’ nationals from outside the

EU’s ‘big tent’

Supranational citizenship supplanting and succeeding national citizenship

• Takes postnational public identity seriously
• Consistent with neo-functionalist and other ‘scalar’

explanations of the development of politics and law BUT

• Tends to overstate the supranational level and ‘crowd out’

the national level

• In any case, not borne out by empirical developments

Composite (national and EU) Citizenship

• Takes both levels seriously
• Suggests a natural ‘jurisdictional’ split in terms of dominant

interests in play (European or national) BUT

• Which interests predominate begs the question of our

readiness to put things in common

• That depends upon our affinities, which may vary

Enter the Denizen

• Conceptually distinct from citizenship
• Habitual residence
• Affects an increasing number of European dwellers, both

EU citizens as ‘second country nationals’ and non-EU citizen ‘third country nationals’

• Doubly denationalized - rights acquired through domicile,

and connection to a locality rather than a state

Value added of denizenship

• (Legal) Status not restricted to citizens
• (Political) Agency as a member and participant in local community
• (Social) Identity in common with others in locality
• Many (but not only) EU citizens, in addition to their citizenship, are

also denizens or have also been denizens

• Can be an identity of choice
• Provides a kind of secondary solidarity (confident residence, local

connection, sense of this as an increasingly typical European form of life)

Limitations of denizenship

• Some denizens are citizens denied or much

delayed

• May invite new exclusionary categorization (

Compared to refugees and ‘Illegals’)

• Today, both supranational citizenship and

denizenship seems to be under pressure simultaneously