EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP - WHICH CONCRETE RIGHTS DOES IT GIVE EVERY EU CITIZEN ?

NOVEMBER 14:

European citizenship: what does that give you in addition to your national citizenship?

If you are a citizens in one of the member states of the EU you also enjoy the rights of having a European Citizenship.  What does that mean ?  

 

The EU decided in its Maastricht Treaty from 1993 that all citizens in its member states in addition to the rights being a citizen in their own countries would from then on enjoy a number of additional rights, freedoms and protections. And these rights are automatic and valid permanently.  You do not have to apply for them.  You simply have them, when you are a citizen of a member state in the European Union.

 

What are these European citizen rights then ?

 

·       You enjoy free movement in all member states. You can go anywhere at anytime

·       You are free to settle down in all member state where you want to

·       You have the right to study and work everywhere in the EU

·       You are free take goods, services and capital with you anywhere

·       You are protected against any discrimination anywhere in the EU.  This might be discrimination due to nationality, religion, gender, colour, etc. You have the right to be treated in exactly the same way as the citizens of the country you are in

·       You have the right to complain directly to the courts, including the European Court of Justice, if you think that your rights are not respected

·       You have the right to vote in local elections in the country you stay in on the same conditions as the citizens of that country.  And you also have the right to be a candidate in local elections

·       When travelling outside the EU you have the right to get help from any embassy or consulate of a member state of the EU, if your own country does not have an embassy in the country you visit or stay in.  And you have the right to get exactly the same assistance as the citizens of the country of the embassy or consulate.

You can ready much more about your rights in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights in the European Union.   It is now part of EU’s Lisbon Treaty of 2009 and therefore legally binding in all member states.

After the United Kingdom left the EU by January 31, 2020, the European citizenship is no longer valid for British citizens.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AMERICA IS COMING BACK TO THE WORLD !

Image
NOVEMBER 24: This is the day! The day when president Trump finally three weeks after the American elections de facto accepts that Joe Biden has won the elections.   And won by a big margin.   So, now US is coming back to the world.   The nominations president-elect Biden is doing shows that he is choosing experienced and professional people, who know what they will be responsible for.   This is also great news for Europe.    The European-American relations will now come back on the track – as real allies, not as sort of adversaries, as Trump preferred to see them.   EU president Charles Michel yesterday congratulated Biden with his victory and invited him to a summit meeting with EU in Brussels next year, after he has taken over in January. The EU with its 448 mio. inhabitants and the US with 328 mio. have a lot in common.   Their mutual trade is huge. In 2019 it was 720 billion dollars – which is about one third of all international trade. ...
Read more

CORONA SITUATION - AND A FEW PIECES OF ADVICE

Hello on this day - March 5 .  I will once again make comments about the Corona situation - incl. some good pieces of advice I have picked up. See below. I also enclose information linked to this day. And MY WARMEST CONGRATULATIONS to those of you celebrating your birthday or some other happy event today.  Have a wonderful day! I want once again to write an update on the CORONA situation – or COVID-19, as it is also called. It takes up a lot of space in the media – and sometimes also in the real world – for the time being. I want to remind you of the facts I gave in an earlier comment:  WHO , the UN World Health Organisation, informs us that the average number of deaths in the world from the “normal” flu every year is 660.000,  55.000 people per month. And I haven’t seen any figure for how many people are infected by the flu. It is most likely millions of people every year. I also in undramatic terms want to say that I have never seen any similar ...
Read more

SHIP ELEVATORS IN BELGIUM

I have earlier written about Belgian culture. Today I want to tell you about Belgium’s INDUSTRIAL CULTURE.   In the beginning of the 19 th century the southern part of Belgium, Wallonia, was the most industrialised part of Europe – apart from England. It was based upon coal mines, iron and steelworks and a big network of internal waterways for transport.   East of Mons you can f.ex. see a former huge industrial complex, which today is an art museum.   The owners in 1810 built a lot of houses for their workers around the factory.   These houses are still there. The place is called GRAND HORNU. A very special side of the Walloon industrial culture was and are the so-called SHIP ELEVATORS.   They are huge elevators, which can lift ships up and down from different heights of the canals in the area. The first one in Houdeng-Goegnies was build in 1888. It can lift ships 15 meters up and down. Three more were added in 1917. Each of them can lift 17 meters. ...
Read more