Support for a supranational European citizenship preceded integration and the political genesis of the key rights of EU citizenship was in the negotiations that established the foundations of European integration in the early 1950s. Since then, the concept of EU citizenship has hardened into law, most famously in the Maastricht Treaty’s declaration that “Citizenship of the Union is hereby established” and the Court of Justice’s oft-repeated assertion that “Union citizenship is destined to be the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States.” Today, as half a billion EU citizens worldwide enjoy a range of rights, the European Commission stresses the need to reinforce EU citizenship by revitalising the link between citizens and the EU and by giving real effect to their rights. Perhaps EU citizenship can most fruitfully be analyzed in terms of varieties of multilevel citizenship found in federal states or other cases of divided, overlapping, or nested sovereignty. Recent calls by European leaders to further deepen political integration and the leadup to 2013 as “the European Year of Citizens” demand analytical, interpretive, and normative considerations of the future of EU citizenship.

Call for papers
The Jean Monnet Chair and EU Centre of Excellence at York University invite proposals for original papers of roughly 8000 words in length, to be revised for publication following the conference. Confirmed participants include Rainer Bauböck, Dimitry Kochenov, Willem Maas, and Espen Olsen. Invited participants will act as discussants for other papers and expenses will be reimbursed for those who submit complete papers by October 3. Please send a 400-600 word abstract and short bio no later than July 8 to Willem Maas at <maas@yorku.ca> noting “Future of EU Citizenship” in the email subject line.