EU citizenship - Newsroom

Policy field(s)

• Justice - EU citizenship

Target groups

We welcome responses from all EU citizens and organisations concerned with developing EU citizenship. 

Period of consultation

From 9 May to 9 September 2012

Objective of the consultation

This public consultation by the European Commission is aimed at all EU citizens and organisations.

We want to know about any obstacles you might be facing in your daily life as a European citizen living, studying, working, shopping or simply travelling within the EU. We would also like to hear your ideas about how to remove these obstacles and further develop EU citizenship.

As a national of an EU country you are also a citizen of the European Union. This gives you a number of rights agreed by all 27 EU countries:

• to travel and live anywhere in the EU
• not to be discriminated against on the basis of your nationality
• to vote and stand as a candidate in municipal and European Parliament elections wherever you live in the EU
• if your own country is not represented, to be assisted by another EU country's embassy or consulate outside the EU, under the same conditions as a citizen of that country
• to petition the European Parliament and to bring a case to the European Ombudsman
• to initiate, together with other EU citizens, a citizens' initiative to call for new EU legislation. 

These rights apply not only if you decide to live in another EU country but also when travelling or staying for a short period elsewhere in the EU (for instance as a tourist, student, trainee, frontier worker, weekly commuter, patient, for business, etc.), or even when you're shopping online. You can read more background here  .

In 2010, the European Commission published an EU Citizenship Report(758 KB)   to inform people about their rights as EU citizens. This Report identified the main obstacles that prevent citizens from fully enjoying their rights and sets out 25 actions to address these obstacles. These actions are now being implemented. See how we are doing in different areas  .

The European Commission will present a new EU Citizenship Report in 2013 with further measures responding to issues raised by EU citizens.

Businesses & other organisations

For the sake of transparency, organisations and businesses taking part in public consultations are asked to provide information on who and what they represent, by registering in our public Transparency Register   and subscribing to its code of conduct  .

If you choose not to provide this information, your contribution to the consultation will be published along with the contributions from individuals. See also: Consultation standards

Additional comments

If you wish to comment further on issues relating to the 2013 EU Citizenship Report, you can email us at: JUST-EUCITIZENSHIP-CONSULTATION@ec.europa.eu.

Please give your name, nationality, name of your organisation (if relevant) and your function in the organisation.

Reference documents and other, related consultations

More on EU citizenship  

2010 Citizenship Report(758 KB)  

Directive 2004/38/EC – right of free movement for EU citizens & family

Report on local elections(145 KB)  

Proposed directive on consular protection for EU citizens abroad(91 KB)  

Directive 93/109/EC on voting & standing in European Parliament elections in other EU countries

Directive 94/80/EC on voting & standing in local elections in other EU countries 

Contact details

European Commission
DG Justice / Union citizenship and Free movement Unit (C2)
Office MO 59 /06/68
B-1049 Brussels
BELGIUM
e-mail: JUST-EUCITIZENSHIP-CONSULTATION@ec.europa.eu

Results of consultation and next steps

After the consultation is closed the Commission will prepare a consolidated and anonymous analysis of all responses to the questionnaire and publish it online.

Data Protection Disclaimer

For information on privacy rulings for this public consultation see the following Specific Privacy Statement(18 KB)  .