Movement Profile
EUDO CITIZENSHIP is an observatory within the European Union Observatory on Democracy (EUDO) web platform hosted at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. It is co-directed by Rainer Bauböck (EUI, Department of Political and Social Sciences) and Jo Shaw (University of Edinburgh Law School), and developed by a consortium of five partner institutions: Central European University, Budapest (Hungary), European University Institute, Florence (Italy), University College Dublin, Dublin (Ireland), University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh (Scotland), and Maastricht University, Maastricht (Netherlands). EUDO CITIZENSHIP has received funding from the EUCITAC project, which is supported by the European Fund for the Integration of Third Country Nationals (Directorate General for Freedom, Security and Justice of the European Commission).
EUDO CITIZENSHIP promotes comparative research that is relevant not only for academic scholars, but also for policy makers and civil society organisations. We present therefore the most important results of our research in policy briefs that address these wider audiences. Most policy briefs summarise our more comprehensive comparative reports, which are published on the Comparative Analyses page of our website.
The EUDO Observatory on Citizenship offers reliable and comprehensive information on citizenship laws and policies of all EU states and neighbouring countries. It provides facts and analyses for evidence-based reform proposals and promotes debates involving NGOs, policy makers and academic researchers. [Note to Laure: Put link in the margin. http://eudo-citizenship.eu]
Our vision of EU citizenship
EUDO CITIZENSHIP is a nonpartisan academic network, but shares a vision of democratic citizenship that supports its policy recommendations. Such recommendations can never be derived from facts alone, but are based on values and principles. The values and principles that support our recommendations do not reflect any particular political ideology or agenda, but can be found in international law and the democratic practices of states based on constitutional government and the rule of law.
We believe that citizenship should be based on genuine and effective links between a person and a state, that statelessness must be avoided, that administrative decisions granting or withdrawing citizenship should be constrained by the rule of law and should be reasoned and that there should be no discrimination in the acquisition or loss of citizenship on grounds of ethnic, racial, religious or gender identities as well as between citizens who have acquired their citizenship at birth or through naturalisation. We also support the proposition that citizenship policies should not threaten the territorial integrity of states and should, wherever possible, enhance friendly cooperation between them. Moreover, we believe that European Union citizenship connects the citizenships of EU Member States in a sui generis way such that each state should take into account how its laws and policies affect the other members in a shared space of free movement. Finally, we endorse the democratic principle that those persons who are subject to the territorial jurisdiction of states as long-term residents should have access to full citizenship status and rights of political participation.
Tags: Movement Profile