Towards European Citizenship

‘Will I still be British?’ was the pensioner’s concerned complaint to her local Euro-MP about the passing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. She was only reluctantly reassured that nothing in the Treaty on European Union directly affected her rights as a British citizen. In fact, what the Treaty does, by virtue of Article 8, is to add to her rights as a British national by making her a citizen of the European Union. The Treaty on European Union states: Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union [Article 8(1)]. Citizens of the Union shall enjoy the rights conferred by this Treaty and shall be subject to the duties imposed thereby [Article 8(2)] (Treaty on European Union, 1992). These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.