Dual Citizenship in the European Union: trends and analysis (2010-2020) The Hungarian amendment was perceived by Slovakia as a threat to the country’s autonomy.79 Therefore, Slovakia introduced a loss provision in its citizenship law, meaning that the acquisition of a foreign citizenship would now automatically lead to the loss of Slovak citizenship.80 A Slovak national who acquired another citizenship was obliged to report this or, failing to do so, could be subjected to a fine.81 In 2011, a case was filed at the Slovak Constitutional Court, arguing that the loss provision violated Art. 5 of the Slovak Constitution, which stipulated that no one can be deprived of their Slovak citizenship against their will. In 2014, the Slovak Constitutional Court approved the amendments of the citizenship law on formal grounds, without a substantive assessment of the case.82 In 2015, a provision came into force that slightly mitigated the effect of the amendment. A share of the persons who had lost Slovak citizenship were enabled to reacquire it on a discretionary basis if they had ‘special reasons’ for the reacquisition of Slovak citizenship.83 This required proof of either special contributions to Slovak society (e.g. in the fields of science or sports) or that the reacquisition of citizenship was otherwise in the interest of the Slovak Republic, or, alternatively, humanitarian reasons.84 Spain In 2015, Spain introduced a preferential pathway to Spanish citizenship for persons of Sephardic Jewish origin, emulating a Portuguese law of 2013 that also provides for citizenship for Sephardic Jews.85 In 1492, Sephardic Jews were banished from the Iberian Peninsula through the Alhambra Decree and subsequently dispersed across Europe, the Ottoman Empire and the Maghreb.86 In order to recognize the sufferings of the Sephardic Jews, Spain offered the distant descendants of the expelled Sephardic Jews the option to acquire Spanish citizenship under facilitated conditions. First of all, persons of Sephardic Jewish origin were exempted from the requirement to renounce their original citizenship upon acquisition of Spanish citizenship by an amendment of Art. 23 of the Civil Code.87 Thereby, persons of Sephardic Jewish origin were treated on equal footing with citizens of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, Portugal Equatorial Guinea or the Philippines who have long enjoyed a privileged position in Vol. 39 No. 5, pp. 685-704; Waterbury, M., Between state and nation: Diaspora politics and kin-state nationalism in Hungary, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 79 Jenne, E. and Deets, S., "Political Context Matters. The Banality of Hungary’s Dual Citizenship Law and Slovakia’s Response", in: Bauböck, R. (ed.), "Dual citizenship for transborder minorities? How to respond to the Hungarian-Slovak tit-for-tat", EUDO Citizenship Observatory, San Domenico di Fiesole: European University Institute 2010. 80 Act No. 250/2010 Amending and Supplementing the Act No. 40/1993 on state Citizenship of the Slovak Republic, Collection of Laws of the Slovak Republic [Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky], 250/2010, 4 June 2010. 81 Art. 9 par. 16 Act No. 40/1993 on Citizenship of the Slovak Republic. 82 Judgment ÚS 11/2012-137, Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, 17 September 2014. See also: Kusa, D., ‘Is the Slovak Citizenship Act unconstitutional? The Constitutional Court leaves the question open’, Globalcit, 29 September 2014. 83 Regulation of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic of 9 January 2015 on the grant of nationality of the Slovak Republic for special reasons, Gazette [Vestník], No. 1, 9 January 2015. 84 Ibid., Art. 1. 85 For the Portuguese Act, see: Organic Law 1/2013, Portuguese Official Journal Series [Diário da República], No. 144, 29 July 2013. 86 Ullman, J.C., “A survey course in the history of the Jews in Spain: from antiquity to the present”, in: Gerber, J. S., Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994, p. 140; Lachenicht, S., “Sephardi Jews: Cosmopolitans in the Atlantic World”, in: Lachenicht, S. and Heinsohn, K. (eds.), Diaspora Identities: Exile, Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Past and Present, Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2009, p. 31-52. 87 Law 12/2015, Official state Gazette [Boletín Oficial del Estado], No. 151, 25 June 2015. 16 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2020/4 - © 2020 Author