| Abstract [eng] |
Citizenship of the European Union, enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty and now governed by Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, is a fundamental status for citizens of all Member States, shaping their legal status and giving them social, economic and political rights to travel, work, study freely in the territory of the Union and the right to participate in political life. Such privileges are guaranteed to all citizens of EU Member States, as the possession of national citizenship per se confers a person citizenship of the Union and its legal content. As Member States have exclusive competence in the field of citizenship, the relationship and dependence between the EU and the Member States is an important criterion for deciding on the rights and privileges granted to EU citizens and their participation in the Union's internal market. Directive 2004/38/EC also has a significant impact on EU citizens' rights and their application, which is seen as a major political breakthrough in transposing all the rules formulated by the ECJ into EU secondary law and guaranteeing the right of economically inactive people to move freely. However, EU citizens are not the only category of people who can enjoy EU citizenship and the rights that come with it. Other persons, in particular third-country nationals who are family members of an EU citizen falling within the scope of Directive 2004/38/EC, persons falling outside the definition of a family member but favored by the ECJ in relation to the EU citizen, and the third-country nationals, who went through normal or discretionary naturalization process, may exercise their rights derived from EU citizen status or become EU citizens and enjoy all the legal content available to them. Therefore, the aim of this master's thesis is to analyze the legal content of EU citizenship and to reveal the broad treatment of Union citizenship status and the scope ratione personae of the rights it confers on EU citizens, their family members and third-country nationals. |
