FROM EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIPS TO EU CITIZENSHIP

The Treaty of Maastricht established the concept of „citizenship of the European Union‟, (EU citizenship) and placed the citizen rights at the heart of the European Union. More over, the freedom of movement became the core of EU citizenship, being intrinsically linked to the internal market. It also meant that the economic/market-oriented rationale embracing the original status of European citizenship moved closer to a rights-based approach. However, for the nationals of the last acceding Member States, namely Bulgarians and Romanians, the right to have access to the internal market (especially labour market) has been at times restricted by the application of transitional measures/arrangements included in the Acts of Accession. In our opinion one of the major consequences of these processes has been the proliferation of different forms of European citizenship whose normative framing and implementation by the nation states foster differential treatment that sometimes conflicts with fundamental rights.