Union Citizenship as a Conceptual Change in the EU-Documents on Citizenship and Culture

The main question of the presentation concerns re-invention and re-contextualization of citizenship. I am asking how the concept citizenship is used in a newborn European Union after the launching of the Union citizenship. What happens to a concept - which has always been changing, contested and controversial - when it is transferred into a new and changing organization? What kind of conceptions of citizenship are produced in this new context? The research material consists in documents given by EU-organs in 1994-2007 concerning eight EU-programmes on citizenship and culture. In the presentation, I will analyze conceptual similarities (continuums) and differences (breakages) between these documents and other contexts, including citizenship discussions in the history of integration since 1970s, democracy theories and nation states. Based on the analysis of participation, rights and identity as central dimensions of citizenship, I will discuss the relations of the Union citizenship to democracy and nationality. EU-documents' framings regarding participation suggest a breakage to many democracy theories. The fact that citizens' rights are hardly mentioned in these documents implies a breakage with the treaty of Maastricht and earlier discussions on citizenship in the history of integration. The strong emphasis on cultural identity in the documents' discussions on citizenship refer to a conceptual continuum with the nation state citizenship.