EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONALITY OF THE MEMBER STATES IN POLICY AND LAW OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

In this paper special attention is paid to the concept of the European citizenship, as a new institute of Community law and the instrument of European integration policy. This institute is formally conditioned by the fact that the bearer of the right of citizenship already has the nationality of a European Union member state. This a topical and challenging issue for legal theory. It has been dealt with, in this paper, primarily as matter of an individual, a citizen of European Union, and of the corpus of citizenship rights. The notion that the EU citizenship cannot be equalized with the nationality of certain state, is discussed too. The connection between the two legal institutes - the EU citizenship and nationality of a state is obvious. European citizenship is analyzed also as a part of human rights and freedoms, and among them, particularly, the right of freedom of movement and free choice of residence, the right to vote and to be elected, diplomatic protection in third countries, and the right to petition to the European Parliament and complaint to the Ombudsman.