Citizenship in the European Union: The Post-Maastricht Scenario

Abstract

The Maastricht Treaty states that all nationals of the member states are now citizens of the European Union (EU). The inclusion of the notion of an EU citizenship, is at the core of an attempt by the EU to bring its predominantly elite-driven integration project closer to the people. This is part of a wider movement throughout Europe in recent years, which has seen politicians of all hues and persuasions embracing the notion of ‘citizenship’ as the way to renew their appeal to the voters. In the last 20 years, citizens have been active in Western Europe in providing, for example, much of the initial impetus leading to the formation of the Green Party in the Federal Republic of Germany. Citizens Action Groups (Bürgerinitiativen) were set up to oppose the building of nuclear power plants, and the decision in the late 1970s to station Cruise and Pershing missiles on their soil. Many of the opposition groups in East and Central Europe pre-1989 too were grouped under umbrella organisations called citizens’ groups. The demise of communism and the apparent triumph of liberal democracy has also resulted in a shift of focus from the undemocratic nature of regimes in East/Central Europe and the Soviet Union, to questions about the nature and operation of political institutions and practices in Western Europe at national and supra-national (EU) level.