Nothing More Than a Rights Catalogue Serving EU Citizens’ Private Interests? Three Insights for an Alternative Assessment of EU Citizenship

In its book on 70 Years of European Union (EU) Law, the Commission’s Legal Service characterises EU citizenship as a status ‘in the service of EU citizens’ which, to a large extent, has been developed through European Court of Justice (ECJ) preliminary rulings. Such a narrow approach is unconvincing in several respects. This contribution therefore proposes three insights for an alternative assessment of EU citizenship which essentially rests on the idea that reducing EU citizenship to a catalogue of (free movement) rights, which individuals can invoke against the Member States, underestimates this status’ true significance for the European Union’s legal order.