Report on Citizenship Law: Germany the discretion of the naturalisation authorities—be taken into account in order to refuse naturalisation. The amendment removes a privilege for applicants below the age limit of 23 years relating to the proof of having sufficient means for existence. In principle, the right to naturalisation under Section 10 of the nationality law does not cease to exist if an applicant becomes dependent upon social assistance or job seeker’s allowances provided that he or she cannot be made responsible for this situation. Until now, however, it has been a privilege for applicants below 23 years of age since they kept a right of naturalisation even if they could be made responsible. According to the legislator the provision is counterproductive for integration efforts. A number of organisations representing the interests of migrant workers, however, have heavily criticised the new provision as making the integration of juvenile foreigners more difficult. It should be kept in mind, however, that even for applicants below the age limit of 23 who are entitled to financial assistance for professional education or study30 these restrictions are not applicable. Substantial changes with regard to the acceptance of dual nationality were made with regard to EU nationals and Swiss citizens. Until 2007, dual nationality was accepted only under the condition of reciprocity with the EU country of origin of an applicant. The application of this provision created a substantial amount of legal difficulties. There were various controversial decisions on what basis reciprocity could be examined if an EU Member State did in practice allow discretionary naturalisation on the basis of dual nationality, although the law provided in principle for a requirement of abandoning previous nationality. The application of these provisions not only caused diverse jurisprudence but also created administrative difficulty in finding out the practice and law of other EU Member States with regard to the grant of reciprocal treatment. The new legislation, therefore, has abolished the requirement of reciprocity. All nationals of EU Member States are entitled to acquire German nationality without having to renounce their previous nationality. As a consequence, German nationals who are applying for a nationality of an EU Member State or of Switzerland, are not required any more to apply for special permission to maintain their German nationality. It has been frequently criticised that acquisition of German nationality has been reduced to a very informal bureaucratic procedure, which is not suitable for demonstrating to new German nationals the importance of nationality. The interior ministers in their meeting in May 2006 in principle agreed on a more formal procedure although no agreement could be reached on the introduction of a loyalty oath as prescribed, for instance, by the US legislation. The compromise reached provides for a formal declaration at the occasion of receiving the naturalisation certificate.31 It is in dispute whether the formal declaration is a requirement of validity of naturalisation, as the explanatory report of the draft suggests,32 while the wording of the provision is not altogether clear since it says that naturalisation becomes valid by the handing out of the naturalisation certificate. Since it is very unlikely that the certificate will ever be passed on without the formal declaration, the issue seems to be more of a theoretical nature (for a discussion see Sturm 2008: 135; for a different view Berlit 2007: 467). A minor change concerns the right to naturalisation of former Germans living abroad. Previously, the privileged access to naturalisation of former Germans was applicable to their 30 See 7th report of the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Migration, Flüchtlinge und Integration, December 2007, p. 145. 31 In German: ‘Ich erkläre feierlich, dass ich das Grundgesetz und die Gesetze der Bundesrepublik Deutschland achten und alles unterlassen werde, was ihr schaden könnte.’ (I hereby declare that I will respect the Basic Law and the law of the Federal Republic of Germany and omit everything which could cause damage to the Federal Republic of Germany), see Sec. 16 of the nationality law. 32 BT-Drs. 16/565, p. 230. 12 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/5- © 2020 Author(s)