Dismissing the Genuine Link by Disregarding Constitutional Principles - Why the Court should not follow Collins’ Opinion in Commission v Malta

Abstract

The struggle over the Maltese investment citizenship scheme is probably one of the fiercest debates of EU constitutional law. The conflict revolves around the question of whether EU law contains requirements for the acquisition of Union citizenship and whether these requirements consist in a “genuine link” between the respective state and individual. The recent Opinion by AG Collins provides us with an extremely narrow and astonishingly one-sided view. In particular, he seeks to make us believe that there are no sound ways to anchor a genuine link requirement in EU law. Martijn van den Brink finds it “hard to disagree with the Advocate General”. Respectfully, I disagree.

Keywords

• CJEU
• Citicenship
• EU
• EU
• Malta
• Malta