EU Citizenship and Duties
Dimitry Kochenov, University of Groningen
EU Treaties never outline any EU citizenship duties with clarity. The literature views this as a problem. Is such a view justified? I explore this underresearched terrain by approaching it from two perspectives. Firstly, the leading theoretical accounts of citizenship are scrutinized with the concept of duties in mind. What is the place of duties in the theories of citizenship? Secondly, empirical analysis of the legal framing of national and EU citizenships in Europe is conducted to produce an actual list of citizenship duties at both levels. A dynamic approach to citizenship duties is adopted, to trace their variation through time. It is demonstrated that notwithstanding the popularity of duties in citizenship theory, with the rise of liberalism, multiculturalism and minority protection their actual number has been in decline. In the light of these findings criticism of EU citizenship connected to the context of duties stands to be seriously criticized.