Deprivation of nationality in Europe: a security measure compatible with the European legal framework?

Several European States, including States located in Southern Europe, have recently amended their nationality legislation to introduce or extent the circumstances following which some categories of citizens can be deprived of their citizenship because of national security concerns. These legislative changes are, in main cases, justified by the need to fight against terrorism. As a result, in the last two decades, deprivation of citizenship has been increasingly used as a mean to punish those condemned or, in some case, merely involved in terrorism. The consequences of this mechanism on the situation of the citizens concerned are significant as the exclusion from the national community can lead to the exclusion from the national territory. Deprivation of citizenship is not prohibited by the European legal framework. However, this sovereign power is still limited by respect for EU law and general principles. The objective of the present proposal is to examine the issues raised by the utilization of deprivation of citizenship as a response to national security concerns regarding and highlighting the limits set out by the European legal framework and institutions. We will first identify the issues raised by deprivation of citizenship starting from the analysis of its applications in several European member States. In that context, we will demonstrate that, by making a link between the decision to revoke nationality and the loss of all residence status, European countries have turned it into an instrument for regulating migration based on criminal grounds. Secondly, we will interrogate the validity of deprivation of nationality as a response to national security concerns regarding the limits set out by the Europe legal framework and institutions.