European Union Citizenship in the Treaty of Lisbon: Any Change at All?

Abstract

european citizens were the subject of one of the three fundamental questions of the laeken Declaration, which led up to the 2004 iGc: how to bring citizens ‘closer to the european design and european institutions’?1 on this basis, one would have expected the constitutional treaty to contain modifications to the provisions on eu citizenship, but at first glance these changes were not very spectacular. as one Dutch commentator stated, they were merely ‘cosmetic’.2 The iGc mandate for the treaty of lisbon was to draw up a reform treaty with a view to enhancing the efficiency and democratic legitimacy of the enlarged union, as well as the coherence of its external action. The mandate explicitly required that the constitutional concept so central to the 2004 iGc was to be dropped.3 The innovations resulting from the 2004 iGc with respect to the content of the amendments to the existing treaties were, however, to be integrated into the reform treaty. as a consequence, some of the changes with respect to european union citizenship, presumably those that expressed the constitutional idea, have been abandoned in the reform treaty. although apparently cosmetic on the surface, it is submitted here that the changes made to the citizenship provisions support a new direction in eu citizenship: an evolution from a complementary towards a more independent citizenship. below, the treaty of lisbon modifications will be dealt with under three headings. This division draws upon the three dimensions of citizenship – the political, the legal and the psychological