Ankara Avrupa Çalışmaları Dergisi (Jan 2004)
AVRUPA BİRLİĞİ YURTTAŞLIĞI AVRUPA KİMLİĞİ SORUNUNA ÇÖZÜM OLUŞTURABİLİR Mİ?
Abstract
European Union citizenship was firstly established within the Maastricht Treaty.As European Union (EU) has been a project that is created by the European elites, the Union has a democratic legitimacy problem since the foundation of the European Communities. Therefore EU citizenship is seen as a key concept to solve the gap between the EU institutions and the individuals. In this paper I am going to discuss the applicability of current EU citizenship status to democratic legitimacy problem of the Union. At the beginning o f the paper I am going to give a short history of the development of different citizenship traditions in Europe. Then I will discuss the legal content o f the Union citizenship and focus on the scope o f the rights recognized in the Maastricht Treaty. At the end I am going to focus on the relationship of Union citizenship and a common European identity. As the result of the paper, I am going to assert following statements: Union citizenship problem cannot be distinguished from a common European identity problem. Like a common European identity problem, the definition o f the Union citizenship has not been completed yet and the content o f the Union citizenship will be defined with the framework of a common European identity.
Keywords