Oleksandra Zmiyenko Saggi – DPCE online, 2020/4 ISSN: 2037-6677 The document is ambitious in many aspects19, however its impact would only be possible to evaluate upon implementation, which may encounter the same obstacles as the other regional instruments. b. The EU context. 5263 The potential role of the EU in addressing de jure statelessness seems marginal, as the competence on citizenship matters has not been conferred to the EU by its Member States. ‘There are no signs that the EU aspires to acquire competences in this field, but the call for minimum harmonization in the academic literature is becoming louder’20. With the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), there were few developments regarding EU citizenship. First established in the Treaty on European Union21, signed in Maastricht22 on 7 February 1992 (Official Journal C191, Vol.35, 1992), the citizenship of the European Union, with its rights and obligations failed to become a component of a dual citizenship23 evolved into something that Kristīne Krūma described as ‘belonging beyond the state’24. Judicial developments, starting from pre-EU citizenship period with Micheletti case25 were continuously, but fragmentarily restricting the absolute state discretion in the nationality matters. Whereas in 1992 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that (…) ‘it is for each Member State, having due regard to Community law, to lay down the conditions for the acquisition and loss of nationality’26, nearly two decades after, in the Rottmann case27, the ECJ ruled that modalities of 19 E.g. by widening a definition of statelessness: ‘stateless person” means a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law, including a person who is unable to establish a nationality’; by potentially simplifying procedures by using ‘habitual residence’ instead of adopting the terms related to ‘legality of stay’, or ‘appropriate connection’ instead of ‘genuine link”. 20 O. Vonk, Dual nationality in the European Union: a study on changing norms in public and private international law and in the municipal laws of four EU member states, Leiden, 2012, 160161. 21 Art. 17 EC began with the establishment of the Citizenship of the Union, which was followed by its definition. In the current wording (art. 9 TEU), which begins with the EU obligation to observe principle of equality of its citizens, it is defined as follows: “Every national of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to and not replace national citizenship”. 22 The Maastricht Treaty of 7 February 1992, Official Journal C191, vol. 35, 1992. 23 Art. 5 of the preliminary draft Constitutional Treaty, drawn up by the Presidium (CONV 369/02, Brussels, 28 October 2002 OR.fr) defined Union citizenship as ‘every citizen of a Member State is a citizen of the Union; enjoys dual citizenship, national citizenship and European citizenship; and is free to use either, as he or she chooses; with the rights and duties attaching to each’ (cf. H. Van Eijken, European Citizenship and the Competence of Member States to Grant and to Withdraw the Nationality of Their Nationals, Merkourios, 27 Utrecht Journal of International and European Law 72, 66 [2010]) 24 K. Krūma, EU Citizenship, Nationality and Migrant Status An Ongoing Challenge, Leiden, 2014, 412. 25 EJC, 7-7-1992, C-369/90, Micheletti and Others v. Delegación del Gobierno en Cantabria. 26 Case C-369/90, para 10. 27 EJEU, 2-3-2010, C-135/08, Rottmann.