National, post-national or trans-national? : the contested nature of EU citizenship

The concept of European citizenship, as defined by the Treaty of Maastricht, has been widely debated both by the sociological and juridical literature. On the contrary, despite its crucial political meaning, it has had little fortune in the politological debate. Most of the scholars have interpreted it as a mere rhetorical tool and easily discarded it. Others, on the contrary, have seen it as a first attempt at going beyond the national definition of a political community, describing it as an embryonic form of post-national citizenship. Through the documented reconstruction of the process that led to the recognition of the citizenship of the European Union, this paper shows how both the national and the post-national interpretations have failed to recognise the peculiarity of the process of polity-building associated with the definition of a Community citizenship. While the former stream of literature has had the merit of underlining the ongoing importance of the national citizenship, it has not recognised the consequences that the emergence of a EU authority in the creation of a European community has had in the definition of the state power. On the contrary, the latter, emphasising the subversive characteristics of EU citizenship, has neglected the still crucial importance of the national level. What is missing in both these interpretations is the identification of the intrinsic trans-national nature of the status of EU citizen. Strictly linked with freedom of movement, the set of rights linked to the citizenship of the Union is activated in those circumstances in which the European legislation overcomes the national one. Far from substituting its national counterpart, therefore, EU citizenship complements it in the reshaping of the political power required by the process of integration.