EU Citizenship and the Right to Care

Abstract

In its seminal Ruiz Zambrano judgment, the ECJ held that Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) precludes national measures which have the effect of depriving EU citizens of the genuine enjoyment of the substance of the rights conferred on them by virtue of their status as EU citizens.This contribution focuses on one potential ‘candidate’ right, namely the ‘right to care’ and examines whether it can and should be considered as part of the ‘substance of’ EU citizenship rights.