The relationship between national and EU citizenship: what is it and what should it be?

Abstract

This chapter discusses two questions: what is the relationship between national and EU citizen-ship legally speaking, and what should it be normatively speaking? While often conflated, these questions must be considered independently of each other. It is argued first that EU law is not even capable of justifying the very minimal restrictions CJEU case law has imposed on the au-thority of Member States to determine the rules on the acquisition and loss of national citizen-ship. It certainly cannot justify more far-reaching restrictions such as outlawing investor citizen-ship or allowing UK nationals to retain their EU citizenship. Normatively speaking, however, the case will be made for giving the EU greater influence over the conditions relating to the loss and acquisition of national and EU citizenship, in particular to ensure that third-country nationals with social ties to their society of residence have a credible path to citizenship.