| Abstract [eng] |
First introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, and subsequently revised by the Amsterdam Treaty, European Union (EU) citizenship long remained an empty promise. Even if it did not offer much in terms of new rights at first, EU citizenship has now become a key element of the rising European polity. Recently, indeed, and thanks primarily to the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) case-law and its codification in Directive 2004/38/EC on the rights of movement and residence of EU citizens and their family, things have started to change. European citizenship is slowly becoming a direct source of rights outside the economic context. This academic master work explores the right of economically inactive EU citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of European Union. The main purpose of this work is to review the existing and potential extension as well as challenges to the principle of free movement of economically inactive EU citizens. Part I of this work highlights the principle of EU citizenship as an independent source of rights of economically inactive people. This part explores the material scope of free movement rights concentrating on the added value of Articles 17-18 EC: whether the new provisions introduce an autonomous and directly effective right to move and reside in a Member State; whether Article 17 and 18 change the law as it relates to ‘wholly internal situations’; whether Articles 17 and 18 contribute to the creation of new substantive rights for EU nationals who are neither economically active nor economically self-sufficient; what are the limits and tendencies of these rights. It is also analyzed what the impact of the recent legal developments in the freedom of movement dimension, such as the ECJ case law and the new Directive 2004/38/EC, is. Part II focuses on the tension between freedom of movement for economically inactive people and the principle of social solidarity. Three categories of economically inactive people are examined, the first concerning access to social assistance for non-workers, the second concerning access to social or educational assistance for students, and the third concerning access to various kinds of job-seeker’s allowance for persons seeking work. Here the principle of non-discrimination is highlighted as having huge impact to social rights of economically inactive EU citizens. Separate section is taken for the exploration of potentialities and limits of social citizenship. |
