Stateless Union Citizens in a Nationality Conundrum: EU Law Safeguarding Against Broken Promises

Abstract

To reside, to integrate, to naturalise. A Union citizen who, in accordance with the spirit of EU law on free movement, has taken firm steps towards achieving the ‘deepest form of integration’ in a host member state, i.e. naturalisation, will not be completely abandoned by EU law during the possible perils of that process.1 This is the main message of the Court of Justice’s judgment in Case C-118/20, JY, concerning member state discretion in the area of nationality law.2 The case resonates with its predecessors, Rottmann and Tjebbes; all three cases deal with member state obligations arising from Article 20 TFEU regarding an individual’s de jure loss of Union citizenship.3 JY can also be linked to the free movement case of Lounes, concerning a Union citizen who naturalised in the host member state, which, under national practices, led to the loss of the EU free movement lawbased residence rights in the host member state for her third-country national