The EU citizenship and Future of Solidarity

Abstract

The EU aims to create not only an internal free market of good, capital and services, but also the free movement of people in which the citizens from other member states are equally treated. While Asian regionalism refers to a “strategic reciprocity”, the EU tries to correct a gap among nations and to promote democracy at the European level. This is a characteristic of European integration.

The EU introduced EU citizenship by the Maastricht Treaty and promotes solidarity among citizens, which contributes to European integration. Twenty years after its introduction, the number of EU citizens working in the member states other than their own is gradually increasing. Moreover, the European Parliament which consists of deputies elected from EU citizens, has become more valuable. However, the enlargement to Eastern Europe and the Euro crisis caused a fear that solidarity among Member States and EU citizens will be considerably damaged. Many conferences which I had opportunities to participate in, have been held at Brussels about solidarity and EU citizenship issues. Three topics are significant for the future of the solidarity of the EU.

Firstly, some member states with background of serious unemployment, try to make stricter rules against the free movement and equal treatment. As the EU has removed the ban of free movement of people from Rumania and Bulgaria at the beginning of 2014, wealthy countries like Germany and the UK have a fear of the “benefit tourism” in which people move to get better social security rather than seek employment.

Secondly, the relationship between nationality and EU citizenship has become more controversial. Citizens of member states are automatically granted EU citizens. And this relation depends on mutual trust among Member States and their citizens. However, at the end of 2013, Maltese government announced that they would sell the nationality at a high price through private company by internet. Thereafter, big debate regarding EU citizenship started among legal and political experts.

Thirdly, European Citizens Initiative was introduced by the Lisbon Treaty as a new tool for democratic European policy making. Sharing common policy subjects, the ECI was expected to enforce solidarity among EU citizens. After nearly 3 years experience, it is necessary to review its procedure and outcomes to determine, whether ECI has indeed contributed to citizens’ participation to EU policy-making process.

In this paper, I review 20 years development of EU citizenship and focus on new aspects of the solidarity issues as mentiored above.