by EUDO CITIZENSHIP co-director Jo Shaw.
In October 2010, the European Commission issued a number of important reports in the area of Citizenship, backing these up with a number of Eurobarometer surveys on EU citizenship, cross-border mobility and the exercise of EU electoral rights. These can be accessed here.
These reports form part of a wider effort on the part of the Commission to focus on EU citizenship as a political priority for the Barroso II Commission, which has created a specific Directorate General for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship and a special programme for citizenship. The general concern is that in citizens’ every day lives it is often hard, in practice, to exercise ‘bread and butter’ EU citizenship rights.
The first report is the Commission’ regular (sixth) report under the Treaties on EU citizenship and it is organised analytically according to the structure of the Treaties. It includes a focus on acquisition and loss of citizenship, which has become increasingly significant in the context of the Rottmann case, extensively discussed on this website in a Forum Debate. The discussion reflects the awareness that EU citizenship may become increasingly significant with regards to national rules on the acquisition and loss of citizenship. For up to date data and statistics on the acquisition and loss of citizenship, the Report refers the Reader to the EUDO Citizenship Observatory (see page 3-4).
The second report outlines the Commission’s political priorities in relation to the exercise of citizenship rights in everyday life, aiming to make it as easy for EU citizens to exercise their EU citizenship rights as it is to exercise their national citizenship rights. The third and final report focuses specifically on an important dimension of EU citizenship rights, namely the right to vote and to stand for election in the European Parliament elections on the basis of residence. It notes a significant increase in participation by resident EU citizens in the 2009 elections in some Member States, notably in Spain.
For direct access to the key legal background information for EU Citizenship, please see here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/citizenship/policies_citizenship_intro_en.htm