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McCarthy to renouce British Nationality

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 11:14 am
by rachellynn1972
Right to change nationality.

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Even without working she can exercise treaty right.


Article 21 Freedom to move and reside

Article 21 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union[1] states that

Every citizen of the Union shall have the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in this Treaty and by the measures adopted to give it effect.

The European Court of Justice has remarked that,

EU Citizenship is destined to be the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States[5]

The ECJ has held that this Article confers a directly effective right upon citizens to reside in another Member State.[5][6] Before the case of Baumbast,[6] it was widely assumed that non-economically active citizens had no rights to residence deriving directly from the EU Treaty, only from directives created under the Treaty. In Baumbast, however, the ECJ held that (the then[7]) Article 18 of the EC Treaty granted a generally applicable right to residency, which is limited by secondary legislation, but only where that secondary legislation is proportionate.[8] Member States can distinguish between nationals and Union citizens but only if the provisions satisfy the test of proportionality.[9] Migrant EU citizens have a "legitimate expectation of a limited degree of financial solidarity... having regard to their degree of integration into the host society"[10] Length of time is a particularly important factor when considering the degree of integration.

The ECJ's case law on citizenship has been criticised for subjecting an increasing number of national rules to the proportionality assessment.[9]

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 11:56 am
by keffers
My understanding is that you cannot renounce EU citizenship unless you also renounce the citizenship that 'gives' you EU citizenship.

So much for one's 'rights'.

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:33 pm
by Greenie
keffers wrote:My understanding is that you cannot renounce EU citizenship unless you also renounce the citizenship that 'gives' you EU citizenship.

So much for one's 'rights'.
Well yes - if you are national of an EU country you are an EU Citizen as well as a citizen of that country. That's not the issue here is it? Why would she want to renounce her EU citizenship? She doesnt want to renounce her EU citizenship, but her British Citizenship. I wonder why Mrs McCarthy can't find work so her husband can apply under the immigration rules. She is still going to have to be exercising her treaty rights if she renounces her British citizenship and they apply for another EEA residence card.

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 3:02 pm
by Directive/2004/38/EC
The title of this thread is "McCarthy to renouce British Nationality".

Did she actually say that she intends to do this? Any links or context material?

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 7:02 pm
by keffers
I make the point about renunciation of citizenship because of the potential conflicts.

Has it been done before? If the two (National and EU) are inextricably linked, might the argument be that to renounce one you have to renounce them all for any to take effect?

Just a thought.