Belonging in Europe: Citizenship and post-national rights

Abstract

Changes in the role of the nation-state and the phenomenon of regional integration are discussed in relation to two dominant contemporary paradigms, globalization and human rights. The article considers the dual phenomena of reduced state autonomy and increased emphasis on the importance of citizenship, and argues that they are consistent rather than contradictory phenomena. The argument is developed with reference to the emergence of European Union citizenship, which is considered both in relation to European citizens and citizens of third countries permanently resident within Europe. The thesis is that European citizenship at present is most effective as a marker of exclusion, and that it has so far failed to deliver substantive new rights to EU nationals, but has instead provided a mechanism for hierarchizing belonging within Europe according to national criteria rather than Union-wide considerations. This limits the possibilities for the emergence of truly post-national rights, despite the EU's increasing invocation of human rights as fundamental to the evolving European entity. The argument is exemplified by reference to several recent legal cases decided by European courts, on the rights of both EU and non-EU nationals.