EU Citizenship and the Expulsion of Own Nationals – Mapping Sources of Protection

This paper explores what sources of protection exist against the expulsion of EU citizens at international and European (Council of Europe) levels and how they intersect with protection that exists under EU law. The fact that EU citizens can be expelled from their host state is an indication that EU citizenship is not yet quite a nationality since the Member States can exercise a certain degree of control over the presence of EU citizens on their territory. Under international law it is generally accepted that states cannot expel their own nationals and that nationals enjoy a right to remain in the territory of their state of nationality irrespective of how serious or disturbing their behaviour is (e.g., Article 13 UDHR, Article 12 ICCPR and Protocol 4 of the ECHR). As an appendix of the principle of territorial sovereignty, states have the right to control the presence of foreigners on their territory although this right is increasingly circumscribed by international human rights and refugee law. EU citizenship creates an alternative model that protects EU citizens depending on the duration of their residence in the host state and situates them at the crossroads of nationality and foreignness. In the system created in EU law by using EU citizenship as a building block, residence doubled by integration - itself a byproduct of residence - function as a substitute of the bond of allegiance that ensues from holding state nationality. By analysing sources of protection against expulsion that go beyond EU law, the paper tries to understand what the EU rules on expulsion reveal about the nature of EU citizenship and the nature of protection that is awarded to EU citizens along with its position in relation to (national) citizenship and human rights.