Brexiting European Citizenship through the Voice of Others
Summary (2 min read)
Introduction
- The British vote on 23 rd June, opting by a rather slim majority to leave the European Union, has sent waves of uncertainty rippling through the island and the continent, as well as through some milestones of European integration.
- 2 Second, it is a condition centered on the right to free movement, to the point that European citizens not exercising their right to free movement are subject to reverse discrimination.
- This essay questions these new facets, reflecting on the new vulnerabilities that the link between national and European citizenship reveals; on the condition of mobile European citizens held to ransom from static ones; and on the opportunity that recent events entail for the Union to reaffirm a direct link to its citizens.
- In plural, in consideration of the fact that nationals of other Commonwealth countries resident in the U.K. were allowed to vote in the referendum.
Exit through Voice
- Much ink has been spilled on the relation between national and European citizenship.
- This is a corollary of the “ius tractum” nature of European supranational citizenship: 7 European citizenship follows national citizenship like a shadow follows the body that carries is along.
- It is precisely in this latter perspective that the European Court of Justice has issued its strongest warning on the exercise of national powers in terms of acquisition and withdrawal of nationality.
- This decoupling is impliedly admitted by the provisions introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon that formalized the possibility of withdrawal of a Member State.
8 FRANCESCA STRUMIA, SUPRANATIONAL CITIZENSHIP AND THE CHALLENGE OF DIVERSITY – IMMIGRANTS, CITIZENS AND MEMBER
- 11 Something on which some doubts begin to linger according to the reactions of politicians as well as constitutional scholars in the UK.
- Decide that it is in the best interest of the country to secede, with all the citizenship consequences that secession entails.
- Voice on the basis of national citizenship may determine the exit from supranational citizenship.
- The problem is that, for the significant minority that opposed Brexit with their vote, it is the voice of others that forces exit.
- 15 This is Hirschman’s tryptic: exit, voice, and loyalty.
Caring for the Discrete and Insular Minorities?
- In the early days of European citizenship, several studies compared it to federal citizenship.
- 22 If European citizenship were a real federal citizenship, it would entail a direct link between the Union and its citizens, with which the Member States would not be able to interfere.
- 26 If this 22 See, e.g., CHRISTOPH SCHÖNBERGER, UNIONSBÜRGER: EUROPAS FÖDERALES BÜRGERRECHT IN VERGLEICHENDER SICHT (2006).
- The answers to these questions depend in good part on how one interprets the link between the citizens and the Union.
Conclusion
- Once the dismay and inebriation of the immediate referendum aftermath will have waned, the world may be left with a crumbling Europe, and researchers will be left with some hard thoughts.
- Events of the last few days cast old principles under new light and prompt a renewed research agenda on the prospects of supranational citizenship.
- The latter concept may seem left in agony, in the wake of resistance to migration, strained transnational solidarity, burgeoning nationalism and now popular opt-out.
- Yet it is still one that attracts much attention around the globe.
- 29 See Pietro Adonnino, A People's Europe.
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Frequently Asked Questions (7)
Q2. What does it mean to be a national?
It allows partaking, through the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of nationality, of the rights of nationals in a host Member State.
Q3. What is the definition of a condition of European citizenship?
2 Second, it is a condition centered on the right to free movement, to the point that European citizens not exercising their right to free movement are subject to reverse discrimination.
Q4. What is the meaning of supranational citizenship?
If supranational citizenship is a horizontal extension of national citizenship, entirely dependent on the sorts of the latter, then there is little that the EU can or should do.
Q5. What is the effect of citizenship on the individual?
The very political exercise of national citizenship potentially ends up silencing, for many, their supranational citizenship and its political side.
Q6. What is the way to decide if a country should secede?
50.decide that it is in the best interest of the country to secede, with all the citizenship consequences that secession entails.
Q7. What is the problem with the vote of the majority?
The problem is that, for the significant minority that opposed Brexit with their vote, it is the voice of others that forces exit.