EU citizenship

What is EU citizenship?

• Any person who holds the nationality of an EU country is automatically also an EU citizen. EU citizenship is additional to and does not replace national citizenship. It is for each EU country to lay down the conditions for the acquisition and loss of nationality of that country.
• Citizenship of the Union is conferred directly on every EU citizen by the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU .

What rights do you have as an EU citizen?

The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union entails the right to:

• move and reside freely within the EU;
• vote for and stand as a candidate in European Parliament and municipal elections;
• be protected by the diplomatic and consular authorities of any other EU country;
• petition the European Parliament and complain to the European Ombudsman.

These rights apply to all EU citizens.

EU citizens are entitled to other rights including:

• the right to contact and receive a response from any EU institution in one of the EU's official languages;
• the right to access European Parliament, European Commission and Council documents under certain conditions; and
• the right of equal access to the EU Civil Service.

The Treaty also prohibits discrimination on the basis of nationality .

The Lisbon Treaty introduced a new form of public participation for European citizens, the Citizens' Initiative. This allows one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of EU countries to call directly on the European Commission to bring forward an initiative of interest to them within the framework of its powers.

What is the European Commission doing in this area?

The Commission monitors the implementation and application by Member States of the EU citizenship rights as provided by the Treaty. In its Citizenship Report 2010 [154 KB] , it identified the main obstacles that citizens face when making use of their EU rights in their daily lives as well as actions to eliminate these obstacles. The report was accompanied by a report on progress towards effective EU citizenship [106 KB] .

The reports built on the results of a public consultation on how to strengthen EU citizenship rights (June 2010).

Commission guidelines issued in 2009 made the strengthening of EU citizenship a political priority. This move followed a report by French MEP Alain Lamasourre calling for better protection of EU citizens' rights.

More information on rights as an EU citizen: Your Europe - citizens' portal