Severing the Bond between EU Citizenship and EU Free Movement Rights

Citizenship is a categorical concept distinguishing between insiders and outsiders (Bauböck 2017). However, if we accept that it is made of bundles of rights that can be attributed distinctively to different members (Cohen 2009), then the border between the two categories is not a hard one. This makes quasi- and semi- citizenship regimes possible. I argue that this effect is particularly pronounced in the case of EU citizenship, where some non-EU citizens (EEA-non-EU) have full access to the most important bundle of EU rights – free movement rights. Moreover, I argue that this bundle represents the very core of EU citizenship and activates the other rights (Aradau et al, 2013, Carrera, 2004, Guild 2004). In this paper, I investigate two cases of mismatch between de jure and de facto EU citizenship, and explore the implications they have for the differentiation of EU citizenship. I argue that, in both situations, the differentiation is done by severing the bond between EU citizenship and EU free movement rights. The first case - EEA-non-EU citizens are non-citizens covered by Directive 2004/38/EC also called ‘The Citizens` Rights Directive’ who enjoy free movement rights without formally being EU citizens. At the same time, Brexit is creating anomalies in terms of EU citizenship. Shaw (2018) demonstrates how Brexit is entailing the biggest loss of citizenship rights in Europe since the Yugoslavian case. It does so in two ways. First, EU citizens in the UK will remain de jure EU citizens, but, as I argue in the paper, will be deprived of the meaningful exercise of this citizenship in the country where they reside. Second, British citizens in the EU will cease to be EU citizens the day Brexit happens. I thus explore EU citizenship and its tensions at the fringes through the analysis of the documents creating these anomalies – EEA and EU-UK agreements and declarations on citizenship and free movement rights. I complement this with 40 in-depth interviews with Norwegian free movers in the EU and EU citizens in the UK, and shed light on their quasi- and semi- EU citizenship, respectively.