Nationality and Citizenship in Sweden and the European Union

The treatise examines national and Union citizenship, and the role of European citizenship within the legal concept of citizenship in general. The main purpose of the study is to analyse the legal effects and importance of citizenship for the individual in international law, European law and Swedish law. The study includes an analysis of the legal character of national and Union citizenship, as well as the rights granted under each, respectively. In certain areas, Swedish citizenship has lost much of its importance during the past decades. This weakened function within Swedish national law is examined critically. Union citizenship was introduced in the Maastricht Treaty with the intention of creating a European identity. The European Court of Justice has embarked on an interesting development and expansion of Union citizens’ rights but, in practice, Union citizenship does not provide much so far in addition to citizens’ rights as expressed in national and international law and particular Union legal instruments. Normally, Union citizenship only functions as a selection criterion connected to such EU legislation. Thus, Union citizenship hardly fulfils its objectives. The author examines critically the formation of the Union citizenship concept, in particular the appropriateness of the present requirement of national citizenship of a Member State as a prerequisite for Union citizenship. Starting from the particular functions of Union citizenship, the possible framing of an independent concept of Union citizenship is analysed. The author concludes it would be preferable to create a new basis of selection, e.g. long time domicile in the EU. The most important advantage would be that “domicile”, as defined under EU law, would create a uniform and equal basis for Union citizenship. That would also provide a satisfactory solution to the present problem of exclusion of persons being permanent residents in EU Member States but third country nationals.Juridikbok.se CC-BY-NC 4.0