Statelessness Working Paper Series 2016/03 5. Conclusion As predicted by Hannah Arendt, the nation-state that was originally the guarantor of universal human rights has been weakened by transnationalism and globalization.52 It seems that within the EU, state sovereignty in the field of citizenship is gradually losing ground. Nevertheless, EU citizenship is still far from taking over member states’ citizenship. Interestingly, René de Groot points out that the on-going changes consist more in the development of a European law on citizenship than in the replacement of national citizenship by EU citizenship.53 Currently, EU citizens enjoy two levels of citizenship, with the supranational one developing in the sense of the enlargement of the set of fundamental rights guaranteed within the EU system. If one day access to citizenship officially figures among these EU guaranteed rights, one may hope that every individual in a situation of statelessness within the EU’s internal borders may finally obtain a legal existence. There are some positive signs indicating growing awareness and concern about statelessness in Europe. For instance, in December 2015, during the EU Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council, the ministers adopted some conclusions on statelessness54 and evoked the need for an EU Directive on statelessness determination procedures.55 They also invited the Commission to launch a platform for exchanges of good practices among MS in order to reduce the number of stateless people and strengthen their protection. 56 Nevertheless, reduction of statelessness will not happen if not supported by stronger and more efficient EU and MS anti-discrimination policies, targeting in priority migrant communities. Given that states themselves have little incentive to reduce statelessness of Roma or any other discriminated minority, the EU as well as civil society should assume a greater role and influence the states to implement the international legal obligations they adhered to regarding statelessness and discrimination.57 In parallel, the WBC are endeavouring to comply with EU standards and rules, notably in the fields of statelessness reduction and integration of Roma. This is probably the best moment – with the best momentum – for the EU to take strong actions in solving statelessness issues that would have an impact on Europe overall. 52 Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harcourt, New York, 1968 Gerard-René de Groot, ‘Towards A European Nationality Law’, Electronic Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 8.3 (October 2004), <www.ejcl.org/83/art83-4.html> accessed 1st March 2016, pp27-30 54 See the Conclusions of the Council and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States on Statelessness <www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/12/04-council-adopts-conclusions-on-statelessness> accessed 1st March 2016 55 So far, only eight MS have implemented this 1954 Convention obligation, namely Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Slovakia, Spain and United Kingdom. See Gábor Gyulai, Stateless Determination and the Protection Status of Stateless Persons, European Network on Statelessness, 2013 56 See the European Migration Network’s website <http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-wedo/networks/european_migration_network/reports/index_en.htm> accessed 1st March 2016 57 See Nermin Allam, ‘Stateless Roma in Europe: a Case Study of European Migration, Citizenship and Identity Policies’, Victoria Biennal Conference Series, April 2010, p14 53 7