Part III: Should EU Citizenship Be Duty-Free?
Abstract
Maurizio Ferrera argues for strengthening EU citizenship in order to make
it not only attractive for mobile Europeans but also for ‘stayers’ who feel left
behind in processes of globalisation and European integration. According to
Ferrera, EU citizenship is primarily ‘isopolitical’ and regulatory; it confers
horizontal rights to people to enter the citizenship spaces of other member
states and it imposes duties of non-discrimination on these states without
providing for redistribution in response to perceived or real burdens resulting from free movement. Ferrera suggests several reforms that aim broadly
at empowering the stayers. Among his proposals are an ‘EU social card’,
universal transferrable vouchers for accessing social rights in other member
states that stayers can pass on to their children who want to move, and a
European wide social insurance scheme that would supplement those of the
member states. He also suggests to strengthen EU citizenship with some soft
duties, such as earmarking a small percentage of personal income tax for EU
social policies or raising funds for such policies through fees on an EU
social card or EU passports. Some respondents to Ferrera’s essay deny that
free movement creates burdens that call for compensation or insist that EU
citizenship should remain duty free. Others focus on the sources of solidarity and ask what duties of social justice apply to the EU. Several authors
support Ferrera’s arguments while advocating bolder policy reforms.
Keywords
EU citizenship; Citizenship duties; Welfare states; Free movement; Social
Justice; Solidarity.
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