The European Union launched a Year of Citizens in 2013 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the inclusion of European citizenship in the Maastricht Treaty. As a result of the case law of the European Court of Justice, a comprehensive legal framework is in place governing free movement.

This is the first right of the European citizen. European citizenship has now become an established fact in Europe, “destined to become the fundamental status of nationals of Member States” in the words of the European Court of Justice. But what of its future in a period of doubt about the European project? What is the relationship between a wider European citizenship and EU citizenship? Is this new form of citizenship post-national and self-standing, and if not how does it relate to national citizenship? What else but a transnational citizenship holds Europe together and if that is becoming more evident as a result of the economic crisis, how can a more full-scale European citizenship emerge? The aim of ECIT’s Guidelines is to stimulate debate on such questions.