The political constitution of the EU citizen rights regime

Reactions to decisions by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) demonstrate that the political institutions in the Union should take responsibility for the development of the structure of the European Union's (EU) citizen rights regime. This article analyses different political views on the EU citizen rights regime. It argues that the disagreement between them is largely a disagreement between 'reasonable views'. The disagreement is mainly based on different views about the levels (European, national) at which individuals are to be seen as equals and about the contribution of different communities and institutions to the good life of citizens, both individually and collectively. Taking the contestation between the different views seriously, the article argues in favour of political constitutionalism, according to which the development of the EU citizen rights regime is the responsibility of political rather than judicial institutions.