Citizenship of Rights and the Principle of the Highest Standard of Fundamental Rights’ Protection: Notes on the Melloni Case

Abstract

The specificities of the fundamental rights' protection in the EU are directed by an interconstitutionality logic. In the Melloni case (C-399/11), judgment of 26 February 2013, the ECJ was called upon, for the first time, to interpret/clarify the meaning of Article 53 CFREU. The ECJ concluded that this was not a matter of enforcement of the fundamental rights' highest standard of protection, for the Spanish Constitutional Court case law would undermine the very effectiveness principle of EU law. It derives from ECJ case law, confirmed by Article 51 CFREU, that the fundamental rights protected by the EU legal order may be invoked when the measure at stake belongs to the material field of application of EU law. If European citizenship falls within the material scope of application of EU law, this should allow for the fundamental rights standard of the Union to be autonomously invoked by the European citizen. Keywords: CFREU; ECJ; EU law; fundamental rights' protection; Melloni case; Spanish constitutional court