Looking for Substance at the Boundaries: European Citizenship and Mutual Recognition of Belonging

Summary:

This article analyses the case-law on the substance of European citizenship rights and highlights the perils of increasing the depth of citizenship rights while disregarding the breadth of their application.

The article also discusses some CJEU ‘classics’ on citizenship and proposes a novel reading of them to evidence the underlying mutual recognition of belonging rationale. The article also analyses potential applications of the rationale of mutual recognition of belonging, looking in particular at the case of access to nationality for third country nationals (TCNs).