Author:Eni Mazniku (Law Faculty, University of Tirana)                         

                  Reflections on European citizenship

The idea to write an article on European

 citizenship came into my mind after a very useful training on European Citizenship in Turkey. Before the training my knowledge on this matter was very unclear and insufficient, because even nowadays it is a non-widely elaborated matter. After the training I admit that I am more confused and unclear, but at least I have more information about the European citizenship.

I am Eni Mazniku, a Public Law master student from Albania, a country who hasn’t gained yet even the candidate status to be part of the European Union and you logically may ask: Which are my relations with the European Citizenship if I am not legally a European citizen? Well, before the training, I also shared the same doubt. I also thought that citizens of non EU countries were excluded from benefiting from such a desirable status but fortunately the situation is more positive as it seems.  I will try to explain those reasons in the next rows.

Before continuing with this article, I need to emphasize the difference between to concepts, European Union citizenship and European citizenship. EU’s citizenship is mainly a legal status, which was regulated by the Maastricht Treaty since 1992. European Union’s citizenship is supplementary to national citizenship and affords rights such as the right to vote in European elections, the right to free movement, settlement and employment across the EU, and the right to consular protection from other EU states' embassies when a person's country of citizenship does not maintain an embassy or consulate in the country they need protection. European citizenship is mainly a social and cultural status that is not regulated by a specific law. This concept goes beyond the defined territory of the European Union and is extended even in the countries that are not part of the EU but feel that share common values. European citizens are free to think and act like EU’s citizens, because nothing prohibits them to share such core values as human rights, tolerance, respect for the diversity, interest on European culture and alike.

To have a clearer view of those two concepts, I would like to mention two important organizations like Council of Europe and European Union.  The Council of Europe is an international organization promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It was founded in 1949, has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens. The European Union (EU) is an international organization, based mostly on economic and political cooperation of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe and its population is about 503.5 million people. The EU operates through a system of supranational independent institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisions by the member states. 

Those two institutions give the possibility to feel European, even to people who legally may not fulfill the legal criteria of the EU’s membership. So as we all can see, it is totally possible to feel “European/Européenne/Europäisch/Europeo”  even if your passport is not blue with 12 golden stars, because more than a legal status European citizenship is a way of living.

From the humanitarian perspective, being a European citizen is a state of strongly believing in such fundamental rights and freedoms such as: the right to live, the right to personal life and family, the right to have a due process of law, the right to be treated without discrimination, freedom of movement, freedom of choosing your own education, freedom of establishment etc.

From the musical perspective, being a European citizen may mean that you are a good listener of Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, Strauss but at the same time of HIM, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Muse, Coldplay,U2 etc

From the literature perspective, being a European citizen may mean that you are a good reader of Homer, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, George Orwell, Victor Hugo etc

From the social perspective, being European a European citizen may mean that you were born in Italy, by a Spanish mother and French father, your girlfriend/boyfriend is German and you live in Portugal.

List of perspectives is infinite and very subjective too. There is no unique definition of European citizenship but there are some common values that people need too share in order to feel European rather than American or Asiatic. In that moment a question comes into my mind: May a person from USA, Asia, Africa, Australia feel European? I don’t have a definite answer for that yet, maybe yes as long as that person shares the same values. I will let you think about that also…