OUR RIGHTS AS A CITIZEN OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

We were discussing what rights we are having as citizens in the EU. This is what we have learnt in our study , chats and videoconferences. Slovak students have had the videoconference with the Slovak Ombucman and they shared the ideas of the videoconference with all the students. 

Citizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, which was signed in 1992, and has been in force since 1993. European citizenship is supplementary to national citizenship and affords rights such as the right to vote in European elections, the right to free movement, settlement and employment across the EU, and the right to consular protection from other EU states' embassies when a person's country of citizenship does not maintain an embassy or consulate in the country they need protection in. EU citizenship as a distinct concept was first introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, and was extended by the Treaty of Amsterdam. Prior to the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, the European Communities treaties provided guarantees for the free movement of economically active persons, but not, generally, for others. The 1951 Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and Steel Community established a right to free movement for workers in these industries and the 1957 Treaty of Rome provided for the free movement of workers and services. However, the Treaty provisions were interpreted by the European Court of Justice not as having a narrow economic purpose, but rather a wider social and economic purpose. In Levin, the Court found that the "freedom to take up employment was important, not just as a means towards the creation of a single market for the benefit of the Member State economies, but as a right for the worker to raise her or his standard of living". Under the ECJ caselaw, the rights of free movement of workers applies regardless of the worker's purpose in taking up employment abroad, to both part-time and full-time work, and whether or not the worker required additional financial assistance from the Member State into which he moves. Since, the ECJ has held that a recipient of service has free movement rights under the treaty and this criterion is easily fulfilled, effectively every national of an EU country within another Member State, whether economically active or not, had a right under Article 12 of the European Community Treaty to non-discrimination even prior to the Maastricht Treaty. In Martinez Sala, the European Court of Justice held that the citizenship provisions provided substantive free movement rights in addition to those already granted by Union law.

European rights from cristinagila

Political rights Voting in European elections: a right to vote and stand in elections to the European Parliament, in any EU member state (Article 22) Voting in municipal elections: a right to vote and stand in local elections in an EU state other than their own, under the same conditions as the nationals of that state (Article 22)Accessing European government documents: a right to access to European Parliament, Council, and Commission documents (Article 15). Petitioning Parliament and the Ombudsman: the right to petition the European Parliament and the right to apply to the European Ombudsman in order to bring to his attention any cases of poor administration by the EU institutions and bodies, with the exception of the legal bodies (Article 24)[15] Linguistic rights: the right to apply to the EU institutions in one of the official languages and to receive a reply in that same language (Article 24). Rights of free movement Right to free movement and residence: a right of free movement and residence throughout the Union and the right to work in any position (including national civil services with the exception of those posts in the public sector that involve the exercise of powers conferred by public law and the safeguard of general interests of the State or local authorities (Article 21) for which however there is no one single definition); Freedom from discrimination on nationality: a right not to be discriminated against on grounds of nationality within the scope of application of the Treaty (Article 18); 

Rights abroad Right to consular protection: a right to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities of other Member States when in a non-EU Member State, if there are no diplomatic or consular authorities from the citizen's own state (Article 23): this is due to the fact that not all member states maintain embassies in every country in the world (16 countries have only one embassy from an EU state).

Our rights as a citizen of the european from Zuzana Meszarosova

Free movement rights Article 21 Freedom to move and reside Article 21 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union[14] 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 The ECJ has held that this Article confers a directly effective right upon citizens to reside in another Member State.[17][18] Before the case of Baumbast,[18] 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. 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. Member States can distinguish between nationals and Union citizens but only if the provisions satisfy the test of proportionality. 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„ 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. Article 45 Freedom of movement to work Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union[14] states that 1. Freedom of movement for workers shall be secured within the Union. 2. Such freedom of movement shall entail the abolition of any discrimination based on nationality between workers of the Member States as regards employment, remuneration and other conditions of work and employment. State employment reserved exclusively for nationals varies between member states. For example, training as a barrister in Britain and Ireland is not reserved for nationals, while the corresponding French course qualifies one as a 'juge' and hence can only be taken by French citizens. However, it is broadly limited to those roles that exercise a significant degree of public authority, such as judges, police, the military, diplomats, senior civil servants or politicians. Note that not all Member States choose to restrict all of these posts to nationals. Much of the existing secondary legislation and case law was consolidated[23] in the Citizens' Rights Directive 2004/38/EC on the right to move and reside freely within the EU. Passports of the EU The European Union does not issue passports, but ordinary passports issued by its 27 member states share a common design. Common features include the burgundy coloured cover, the use of the words "European Union" in the country's official language or languages on the cover, as well as common security features and biometrics. Some EU member states also issue non-EU passports to certain people who have a nationality which does not render them citizens of the European Union (e.g., British Overseas Territories Citizens except those with a connection to Gibraltar, British Nationals (Overseas), British Overseas Citizens, British Protected Persons and British Subjects). National identity cards in the EU National identity cards are issued by 24 European Union member states to their citizens. EU citizens holding a national identity card can not only use it as an identity document within their home country, but also as a travel document to exercise the right of free movement in the European Economic Area (European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) and Switzerland. Some EU member states also issue national identity cards to residents who are non-EU citizens – these cards are only valid as an identity document within the issuing country and are not valid as a travel document for the rest of the EEA and Switzerland. At present, three European Union member states (Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom) do not issue national identity cards to their citizens. Therefore, EU citizens from these three countries can only use a passport as a travel document to enter and reside in the EEA (EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) and Switzerland without a visa.