The resilience of EU market citizenship

Abstract

This article argues that EU citizenship has not (yet?) evolved beyond a construction of market citizenship. The argument does not make a normative claim that EU citizenship is “destined”, to paraphrase the Court of Justice, only and ever to remain a form of market citizenship. But drawing from both the nature of the EU as a polity and the material impact of its citizenship thus far, it suggests that market citizenship endures as at least one valid and credible way of capturing how EU citizenship has developed in reality. The particular qualities of the EU transnational market are explored so that the possibilities afforded by market citizenship are strongly contextualized. The intricate links between the EU and its Member States and the persisting significance of free movement rights are also discussed as defining characteristics of EU market citizenship. The growing impact of developments beyond free movement law is recognized to a certain extent, but this is not construed as an equally paced alchemic reaction in legal, social or political terms. The overall argument presented does not seek to dismiss or displace the wealth of normative thinking that conceptualizes EU citizenship (contested as it is) in both creative and challenging ways. Rather, the article reflects on the extent to which we are actually “there yet” in empirical terms.