Articles for tag: Citizenship by Investment, Hannah Arendt, Menschenwürde, Unionsbürgerschaft

Sale of Nationality as a Violation of Human Dignity

On 21 March 2023, the European Commission brought action against Republic of Malta for establishing and maintaining a policy and a practice of naturalisation despite “the absence of a genuine link of the applicants with the country, in exchange for pre-determined payments or investments”. In this blog, I argue that the Court is fully competent because Malta violated article 1 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Specifically, I argue that selling nationality violates human dignity because nationality confers legal subjecthood, which is a central condition for guaranteeing the human dignity of European citizens.

2. Oktober 2024

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Long Live Nottebohm

Next year, Nottebohm will be turning 70. Only very recently, Weiler, on this blog, made the point that the argument of a genuine link – underpinning the case of the Commission against the Maltese golden passport scheme – is unconvincing and rests on a “tendentious reading of Nottebohm”. Yet, in Commission v Malta, the CJEU may well reinvigorate a European debate about the genuine links that bind us. I, for once, would argue it is high time to make the point that nationality is not just anything a State makes of it.

26. April 2024

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The Price of Transatlantic Friendship

While the citizens of most EU Member States enjoy visa-free travel to the US, citizens of Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus do not. Following the Commission’s repeated refusal to activate the reciprocity mechanism in EU visa law to remedy this inequality in access to visa-free travel, the European Parliament asked the CJEU whether the Commission was under an obligation to do so. The Court answered in the negative, holding instead that the Commission had wide discretion in this regard. Its reasoning centers the sensitive political nature that visa retaliation vis-á-vis the US implies, while failing to instill a sense of urgency in working towards equal treatment of EU citizens. This threatens to perpetuate a situation in which the advantages of supranational integration in the context of the Schengen acquis are permanently withheld from nationals of Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

12. September 2023

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The Visa Ban, Nikolai and his Russian Sister

The absence of an EU-level decision to bar perceived Russians ‘tourists’ from visiting the EU, however, did not prevent several Member States from adopting such measures at the national level, departing from EU law provisions currently in force. Contrary to the ‘tourist -only’ narrative, however, the new rules severely affect Russian family members of EU citizens and residents – an issue that, so far, has escaped public attention.

29. September 2022

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Letters from Brussels with Love and the Issue of Mutual Trust in Nationality Matters

In a recent article on this blog, I have set out that the spotlight will soon be turning on the European passportization of Russian oligarchs. And well, what shall I say, it did not take long for the Commission to come out swinging. In a recommendation issued on March 28, the Commission urged “Member States to immediately repeal any existing investor citizenship schemes and to ensure strong checks are in place to address the risks posed by investor residence schemes”.

1. April 2022

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Sanctions for Abramovich, but Schröder Goes Scot-Free

What is the role of citizenship – Russian and European – in the context of the deployment and operation of the sanctions? The question is far from trivial. Indeed, effective rights-focused judicial review of such measures is very weak, allowing the matters of foreign policy and perceived political expediency and retribution to override core constitutional principles and guarantees of the European legal systems at all levels. Let us start with history, to understand what is going on and give it a legal assessment.

11. März 2022

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Claiming »We are out but I am in« post-Brexit

It is not often that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is presented with a case in which the law is so crystal clear, and so overwhelmingly contrary to the applicant’s claims, as in Préfet du Gers. The central question of the case is weather British nationals retain their EU citizenship and EU citizenship rights after Brexit. Given how straightforward the Treaties and the case-law are on this matter, it is unsurprising that AG Collins answered this question in the negative in a well-argued and straightforward Opinion.

25. Februar 2022

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Curing the Symptoms but not the Disease

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Traffic violations are not a proportionate justification to effectively deprive a person of her EU citizenship. This may sound obvious but in reality it was not, as the crucial Grand Chamber case of JY decided on January 18 demonstrates. This is a significant yet predictable addition to the edifice of EU citizenship post-Rottmann. Regrettably, the forward-looking judgment is myopic up to the point of an error of judgement as to the fundamental challenges at play in the factual constellation at hand.

20. Januar 2022

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Peter Handke wird Österreicher gewesen sein

Die Aussagekraft des Satzes „Peter Handke wird wieder Österreicher gewesen sein“ ist nicht nur durch das Futur II entstellt, sondern auch durch einen jugoslawischen Pass. Der österreichische Literaturnobelpreisträger ist also (vielleicht) gar kein Österreicher. Man könnte jetzt meinen, dass diese dramaturgische Volte geradezu bezeichnend ist für die ambivalente Rezeption der Entscheidung des Literaturnobelpreiskomitees, Peter Handke in einen erlauchten Kreis zu heben, dessen Berechtigung der Preisträger selbst immer wieder infrage gestellt hat. Die Posse um Handkes Pass, besehen aus einem ganz anderen Blickwinkel, lädt allerdings ein, einen etwas grundsätzlicheren Blick auf das österreichische Verhältnis zu Doppel- und Mehrfachstaatsangehörigkeiten zu werfen.

12. November 2019

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Where Citizenship Law and Data Protection Law Converge

Becoming a citizen of a country is a noteworthy event. But in light of increasing concerns over the protection of personal data, states face questions regarding the necessity of formal publication of the personal data of their new citizens. A closer look at Member States' practices reveals radical discrepancies between the national approaches taken across the EU.

25. Juni 2019

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