Rights and duties of European individuals

Seminar 12

What were the steps creating a European sense of identity?

• Copenhagen summit → declares European identity

• Maastricht treaty → introduced EU citizenship

• Amsterdam Treaty → respects nationalities of members

• Lisbon treaty → respect equality and nationalities of members

→ increasing amount of members with each treaty

What was a key event for European Identity?

Maastricht treaty

→ created EU citizenship

→ implements common foreign and security policy → reinforcing European identity and independence

What identity projects exist in EU?

two contrasting European identity projects are Cosmopolitan and National-populist

What does the cosmopolitan identity entail?

focus on elite-level politics, political citizenship, and rights

What does the National-populist identity entail?

oriented towards mass politics, social citizenship, and cultural authenticity

Where do EU citizenship rights come from?

• Treaty on European Union (TEU)

• Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)

• Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU

• Established with the Maastricht Treaty (1992) → added EU citizenship on top of national citizenship

What are general principles regarding EU rights?

• EU citizenship complements, but does not replace, national citizenship.

• Free movement within the EU is a core right

• Only national governments decide who is a national (→ Kaur judgment).

• But loss of EU citizenship must respect proportionality (Rottmann judgment):

  • Must be justified

  • Cannot be arbitrary

  • Consequences must be assessed

What right do EU citizens have?

→ rights toward EU bodies

• rights to transparency of and access to documents

• institutions must be open

• access to documents

→ rights towards member states:

• right to free movement and residence in any EU member state

• right to vote and stand in elections

Who protects the values and rights of European citizens?

European Court of Justice

→ interprets and ensures application of laws

→ 27 members of EU

and European convention on human rights

→ protects human rights

→ 47 members of Council of Europe

What is Article 7 of the TEU?

Allows EU to respond if a Member risks or commits a serious and persistent breach of fundamental rights → allows sanctioning

What are possible violations?

→ most done by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary

•  prohibition of recognition of transgender peoples gender

• discrimination of LGBTQ+ through prohibition of information spread

What are the rights and duties of European individuals?

·      Duty to comply with Union law;

·      Duty of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality;

·      duty to respect the expression of the culture of others;

·      duty to contribute to the protection of the environment;

·      duty of loyalty to the Union, subject to the duty of allegiance of the State to which it belongs