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 Query
Regards.
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.
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