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Citizenship of the Union

European citizenship prevails over national citizenship (Photo: Notat)

European citizenship was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993.

EU citizenship prevails over national citizenship in the same way as, for example, German citizenship prevails over that of Bavaria. Therefore, Bavarians have a triple citizenship: one from Bavaria, one from Germany, and the EU citizenship.

The Lisbon Treaty includes an "additional" citizenship instead of the "supplementary" citizenship from the Maastricht Treaty. An additional citizenship is a true dual citizenship so that EU citizens will be both national and EU citizens.

The new additional citizenship is connected to the Charter of joint Fundamental Rights which can be further developed by the Council or the EU Court.

The Citizenship is defined in Art. 20 TFEU in the Lisbon treaty.  

Denmark has derogation from the concept of joint citizenship. The new article on "additional" citizenship is not translated into the Danish edition of the treaty which continues to refer to "supplementary" citizenship only.

Links

Scadplus: Citizenship of the Union http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/s18000.htm