Statelessness in the European Union

Exploring the Potential Value of Union Citizenship

Abstract

Nearly half a million people find themselves stateless within the Member States of the European Union. Lacking an overarching mechanism to address statelessness and its consequences at the EU level, the problem remains. In a different citizenship context, however, the EU has demonstrated that it is capable of devising a framework of rights that transcends national boundaries: citizenship of the EU. With the aim of inspiring renewed debates on, and reconsideration of, the institution of EU citizenship as a potential approach to mitigating the human impact of statelessness, this article examines the value that EU citizenship might have for stateless persons.