Luuk van der Baaren
for a period of at least five years before attaining the age of majority and persons who were not
born in the Netherlands, but who had resided in the country before attaining the age of four.69
As the prevention of dual citizenship was considered to be an essential principle of Dutch
citizenship, it was argued that the renunciation requirement had to be extended to these groups
as well.70
In 2017, a new coalition government entered into office and presented a coalition
agreement that proposed a number of changes regarding dual citizenship.71 The abovementioned loss provisions would be revoked in order to allow first generation immigrants and
emigrants to hold more than one citizenship. However, a new loss provision would be
introduced in order to require second generation immigrants and emigrations upon reaching a
particular age to opt for one of their citizenships.72 At the moment of writing, the government
has not yet drafted a proposal in order to amend the relevant provisions in the Dutch Citizenship
Act accordingly. In 2018, in response to parliamentary questions on the matter, it was stated
that the preparation of a bill would take longer due to the complexity of the matter.73
In January 2019, the looming prospect of Brexit prompted parliamentarians to submit a
bill in order to temporarily allow dual citizenship for Dutch citizens who wished to acquire
British citizenship as well as for British citizens who wished to acquire Dutch citizenship,
although the provisions for British citizens were later removed from the bill.74 The bill was
approved by a majority in the Second Chamber on 5 November 2019.75 After that, the process
stalled in the Senate as the introduction of the emergency bill was considered to be premature
due to approval of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement and the avoidance of a ‘hard Brexit’.
The bill was eventually approved by the Senate, but it will enter into force at a date to be
determined later, and only if the rights of Dutch citizens in the United Kingdom are deemed to
be insufficiently guaranteed.76
Slovakia
Until 2010, Slovakian citizenship law had a tolerant attitude towards dual citizenship, as a
Slovak national would not lose her citizenship upon the acquisition of another citizenship, while
a foreign national who wished to obtain Slovak citizenship was not required to renounce her
original citizenship.77 This changed when Hungary introduced a provision for the facilitated
acquisition of citizenship for ethnic Hungarians residing abroad, who were able to acquire
Hungarian citizenship as long as they had knowledge of the Hungarian language, a clear
criminal record and did not constitute a threat to public order.78
69
Kingdom Act of 17 June 2010, Amendment of the Kingdom Act on Dutch Nationality in relation to multiple
nationality and other issues related to nationality law, Official Gazette [Staatsblad], No. 210, 2010.
70
Explanatory Memorandum, Amendment of the Kingdom Act on Dutch Nationality in relation to multiple
nationality and other issues related to nationality law, Parliamentary Document 31813, 22 December 2008, p. 1.
71
Annex 820240, Parliamentary Document 34700, No. 34, 10 November 2017.
72
Ibid, p. 6.
73
Parliamentary question No. 3105, Second Chamber of Parliament, 6 September 2018.
74
Parliamentary Document 35130, Second Chamber of Parliament, 29 January 2019.
75
Voting results on Parliamentary Document 35130, Second Chamber of Parliament, 5 November 2019.
76
Voting results on Parliamentary Document 35130, First Chamber of Parliament, 30 June 2020.
77
See for an historical overview of Slovak citizenship law: Kusá, D., Country report: Slovakia, EUDO
Citizenship Observatory, San Domenico di Fiesole: European University Institute 2013.
78
Art. 4 par. 3 Act LV of 1993 on Hungarian Citizenship. See also: Tóth, J., “Update: Changes in the Hungarian
citizenship law and adopted on 26 May 2010”, EUDO Citizenship Observatory, San Domenico di Fiesole:
European University Institute 2010; Pogonyi, S., “Dual citizenship and sovereignty”, Nationalities Papers, 2011,
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