EU Citizenship and Its Relevance to EU Exit and Secession

Phoebus Athanassiou 

European Central Bank (ECB) - Directorate General Legal Services

Stephanie Laulhe Shaelou 

UCLan Cyprus; University of Central Lancashire Cyprus

July 12, 2016

D. Kochenov (ed.), EU Citizenship and Federalism: the Role of Rights (CUP, 2016) 

Abstract:      

One of the issues that has emerged in the public debate surrounding the possibility of exit or secession from the EU, but which has yet to be accorded the full weight it would deserve, is the relevance to that debate of the concept of EU citizenship. The increasing significance attributed thereto in recent years by the ECJ, and its gradual evolution through the ECJ’s jurisprudence, from a mostly symbolic concept to a basis for claims over concrete legal rights – as explored in detail elsewhere – raises the pertinent question whether the prospect of the loss of EU citizenship may, in an EU exit or an EU secession scenario, provide a basis for individual claims for its preservation.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 13

Keywords: EU withdrawal; State secession; EU citizenship; BREXIT; Scotland

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2808420