EU Citizenship as a Means of Broadening the Application of EU Fundamental Rights: Developments and Limits

Abstract

The chapter supports the idea that the political integration in the domain of EU fundamental rights is primarily evolving through a ‘triangular’, inter-connected system of protection, including the constructivist transformation of EU citizenship, the institutionalised developments of EU law, and the protection of fundamental rights as general principles of EU law. Yet major components of a comprehensive and all-embracing fundamental rights policy are still absent, which is even more perceptible during periods of crisis, such as the recent financial crisis, where the gaps in citizens’ rights protection became evident due to the difficulties encountered in challenging the consequences of the conditionality imposed. The article aims to fill these gaps, by establishing a connection between EU fundamental and EU citizenship rights, using the judicially developed ‘substance of the rights’ doctrine. Various attempts have taken place towards this aim, yet some loose ends remained that are largely encountered in the present article, through the establishment of a new jurisdictional test, which combines a dynamic reading of Art. 20 TFEU and the substance of the rights doctrine, Art. 2 TEU and fundamental rights as general principles of EU law, such as Art. 19 TEU.