Testing liberal norms : the public policy and public security derogations and the cracks in European Union citizenship

While the traditional discretion enjoyed by states in ordering non-nationals to leave their territory has been curtailed by European Union law, the system of protection afforded to offending European Union citizens by Directive 2004/28 (the Citizenship Directive), nevertheless, contains a number of cracks. These will have to be corrected in the near future not only because they lead to policy incoherence and gaps in rights protection, but also because they threaten to transform European Union citizenship from a fundamental status into a thin overlay which, under pressure from national executive power, loses its effect and significance. This degrading of EU citizenship gives rise to further internal contradictions: while EU citizenship has demonstrated that community belonging does not have to be based on organic-national qualities, cultural commonalities or individuals’ conformity to national values, but it can be built on de facto associative relations and connections brought about through residence and de jure equal membership as far as possible, the continued deportation of long-term resident Union citizens makes nationality the ultimate determinant of belonging. The subsequent discussion suggests possible remedies and proceeds to make recommendations for institutional reform