EU's ”bonus citizenship”: Factsheets for EU citizens

Viviane Reding is the member of the European Commission responsible for citizenship, as well as justice and fundamental rights. Although I was far from impressed by the Commission report about the EP elections, Reding has done a lot to keep the issues of EU citizenship alive.

While the Justice and Home Affairs Council only briefly took note of the Commission's 2010 EU citizenship report, vice-president Reding was actively building bridges towards citizens of the European Union, as shown by the brand new press release, information page and factsheets mentioned in the blog post (in Finnish, but most links to materials in English): Esitteitä ja virallistietoa Euroopan unionin kansalaisen oikeuksista (4 December 2010).

In a comment on Grahnlaw, Mark Gris wanted us to check out the factsheets on EU citizenship.

I had decided to do it at a leisurely pace, highlighting one factsheet at a time, but let us start with the press release containing the needed links for the ones who are more impatient:

European Commission puts citizenship at the heart of justice and social affairs policies; Brussels 3 December 2010, IP/10/1642.REV

Even if the political rights of EU citizens are underdeveloped, the additional union citizenship status is a ”bonus citizenship”, patriarchally offering keys to some practical benefits.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Spain is one of the top countries in the Euroblogosphere, offering both quality and quantity. On the Spanish Euroblog – Blog colectivo europeo – hosted by El País, many of the top eurobloggers in Spain publish their posts, so there is a healthy variety of writers and themes.