The european citizens and the secession of territories in the European Union

Abstract

It has been claimed that the rights of European citizenship may allow a territory seceding from a Member State to remain as such in the Union after its separation from that Member State. This claim does not take into account the vicarian character of European citizenship by reference to the nationality of a Member State. Once the inhabitants of a territory of the Union lose their status of citizens of a Member State they cease to be European citizens. Thus, in principle, they cannot claim their rights as European citizens in order to justify the continuity of the seceding political community as a part of the Union. In any case, some judicial decisions, such as the judgments of the Court of Justice in the cases relating to the right to vote of the inhabitants of Aruba and Gibraltar, raise legal questions which cannot yet be clearly answered.