The EU Citizenship and the European Identity

In 1991, the Maastricht Treaty claimed the creation of the EU citizenship,one of the most important contents and of the most significant benchmarks for the European identity. The building of the EU citizenship involves not only the law, politics and social reality of Europe, but also her philosophy and ideology, reflecting the remarkable progress in the European integration and in a great degree deciding the future fate of the EU. This paper describes the emergence, contents and characteristics of the EU citizenship and discusses the problems in and the prospects of the building of the EU citizenship.