Sacrificing EU citizenship on the altar of Brexit
| Author | Serhii Lashyn |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1023263X221146465 |
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Case Notes |
Sacrificing EU citizenship
on the altar of Brexit
Serhii Lashyn*
Abstract
clarified that British nationals lost their EU citizenship status following the UK’s withdrawal from
the Union. After giving an overview of the facts of the case and summarizing the opinion of AG
Collins and the Court’s reasoning, this contribution critically engages with the judgment and
reflects on its place in the Court’s jurisprudence on Union citizenship.
Keywords
EU citizenship, Brexit, fundamental rights, nationality, CJEU
1. Introduction
The Treaties do not provide clear rules on what happens to the EU citizenship status of the nationals
of a Member State that withdraws from the Union.
1
What might first seem like nothing but an inter-
esting lacuna in EU law actually has a great impact on the lives of millions of British nationals fol-
lowing the UK’s exit from the bloc. One of them is EP, whose case was decided in Luxembourg on
9 June 2022. Faced with a straightforward question, the Court of Justice had no other choice but to
give a definitive answer: British nationals are no longer EU citizens. Their ‘fundamental status’
2
was taken from them as an ‘automatic’
3
consequence of the choice made by their compatriots in
*
Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Corresponding author:
Serhii Lashyn, Universität Hamburg, Rothenbaumchaussee 33, 20148 Hamburg, Germany.
E-mail: serhii.lashyn@outlook.com
1. Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union, [2012] OJ C 326/13 (TEU), Art. 9; Consolidated version of the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, [2012] OJ C 326/47 (TFEU), Art. 20.
2. Case C-184/99 Rudy Grzelczyk v. Centre public d’aide sociale d’Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, EU:C:2001:458, para. 31.
3. C-673/20 EP v. Préfet du Gers and Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, EU:C:2022:449, para.
57.
Case Note
Maastricht Journal of European and
Comparative Law
2022, Vol. 29(6) 736–744
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1023263X221146465
maastrichtjournal.sagepub.com
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