I was bored the other day so I thought I’d have another pop at getting the Home Office to tell me how to renounce my EU Citizenship …
Hi,
I have emailed about this a few times but nobody ever comes back to me. I suspect the answer is inconvenient for you but I really would like an answer.
I am currently a British citizen and an EU citizen. International law says that I can only renounce my citizenship if I am also a citizen of somewhere else so that I don’t become a stateless person. For example, if I was a British citizen and an American citizen I could renounce my British citizenship because I would still be an American citizen.
With this in mind, I would like to know how I go about renouncing my EU citizenship. Doing so will not leave me a stateless person as I will still have British citizenship. I didn’t ask for EU citizenship and I don’t want it so can you please advise:
1. Is there a law that *compels* me to have EU citizenship in addition to British citizenship?
2. If the answer to question 1 is no then how do I go about formally renouncing EU citizenship?Regards,
Stuart Parr
Today I got a response from the Home Office. I did wonder, for a moment, whether Dirty European Shithead had written the response judging by the spelling and grammar …
Dear Mr Parr.
European Citizenship does not exsist. You are a British Citizen, and Britian is part of the European Union.
I hope this answers your QueryRegards.
Mr B.Watt | General Correspondence | Correspondence Enquiry & Support
Team | UK Border Agency | Nationality Group
Hmm, does it answer my question? Not really, no. In fact, it poses more questions than it answers …
Dear Mr Watt,
I’m afraid it doesn’t answer my question.
Article 17 (1) of the amended EC Treaty says:
“Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship
of the Union shall complement and not replace national citizenship.”The EU Justice and Home Affairs website says:
“Every person holding the nationality of a Member State of the European Union is, as a result, a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union supplements national citizenship without replacing it. It is made up of a set of fundamental rights and obligations enshrined in the EC Treaty among which it is worth underlining the right not to be discriminated on the basis of the nationality.”
The Maastricht Treaty established the concept of EU Citizenship in 1992. An Act of Parliament would have been passed to make the Maastricht Treaty law in England. Does that Act of Parliament require me to be an EU Citizen? If not, how do I go about renouncing that citizenship? If, as you say, there is no such thing as EU Citizenship, what has happened to the part of the Maastricht Treaty that created EU Citizenship and how are the British government and I bound by the “fundamental rights and obligations” of EU Citizenship?
Perhaps you could check again and get back to me?
Regards,
Stuart
After sending that email it occurred to me that there might be some laws that mentioned EU Citizenship in them so I had a quick look at the British government’s Statute Law database and found a mention in the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act as well. So I emailed him back to tell him about that as well.
It’ll be interesting to see what he comes back with, if anything. Either EU Citizenship exists and I can renounce it or it doesn’t and all the Treaties and laws referring to it are on a pretty dubious footing.
Technorati Tags: Federal Europe, Citizenship, Home Office
I thought we were ‘British Subjects’?
I recall from somewhere else or sometime else there was some hoo hah about the change in our status from being subjects to citizens
This is great — keep up the good work.
Wonder what the situation is with the laws in other EU countries? If they refer to EU citizenship or not. To the best of my knowledge, those being made UK citizens to not swear an oath of alliegance to the European Commission…
I think there is a parliamentary answer somewhere saying you can’t renounce EU citizenship without renouncing British citizenship. I can’t find it now, but it is related to your quote from the Justice and Home Affairs website.
I can find it: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/2004/oct/11/eu-citizenship
” Lord Tebbit
asked Her Majesty’s Government:
What record they have of the number of United Kingdom subjects who have rejected citizenship of the European Union; and what arrangements they have put in place to accommodate their rejection. [HL4189]
§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
Since the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty “every citizen holding a nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall complement and not replace national citizenship.” (TEC Article 17.1). Because it is a consequence of their UK citizenship individual UK citizens cannot separately renounce EU citizenship. They can however choose not to exercise the rights that EU citizenship brings, such as the rights to travel visa-free, study, work, and retire throughout the EU; to live in any EU country, and take out a mortgage, open a bank account, claim free or reduced cost emergency medical care or vote in local and European Parliament elections there; and, in a third country where there is no British Embassy, to get consular help or protection from any EU member state embassy.”
Lord ‘someone is wearing garlic, i can smell it’ Tebbit, asks about subjects but is answered about citizens, is this a valid answer?
Hundreds (And I wish it was millions) of people here in the UK have formally “renounced” the European Citizenship that was thrust upon them at Maastricht. That is if one can renounce such a thing as a concept of EU citizenship? When a person holds “dual” citizenship, it is possible to renounce one, but the British people have the dilemma of a person who has an EU citizenship that has been forced upon them, of which they cannot dispose, yet may be ‘found’ to be disloyal to that same European citizenship to a European Identity which they might want nothing what-so-ever to do with.
For the first time in British history under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, the Home Secretary of the day gave himself the power to remove the British citizenship of a person born here in the UK, providing in so doing, it does not make anyone “stateless”. (As stated in international law) In projecting forward, should the EU turn into one state it would be an easy matter to use that Act to remove everyone’s British citizenship status just leaving us with EU citizenship. It was this thinking in 2002 as the Bill proceeded its way through Parliament that made me try to get rid of EU citizenship. The thinking behind the removal of the enforced EU Citizenship was that ‘they’ could not, according to ‘International law’ then remove my British citizenship and leave me “stateless”.
A little time has now passed so I will ask a question if I may? When anyone wishes to take up another Citizenship because they may want to live in another Country, there is a great deal of forms to fill up, some-times medicals are needed before hand too. When did any of you fill in such forms to become citizens of another Country (State of?)When did YOU ask to become an EU Citizens? Were you asked if you wanted to have extra Duties put upon you for doing so?
If you cannot answer any of those questions, then tell me why did you vote for MP’s that brought this problematic matter into being? More importantly, when the next election comes round, are you going to vote for those same people AGAIN?
Now, since Lisbon was passed (partly thanks to a rigged referendum in Ireland), it is stated that EU citizenship confers a set of rights and OBLIGATIONS on their conscripted mass of citizens.
Which puts the response quoted from your Parliamentary proceedings about it’s benign nature redundant.
….the benign nature of the ‘eu citizenship, that is.
(Mark, Ireland)