A European or a National Solution to the Democratic Deficit? Alain Brun I agree with Rainer Bauböck on his starting point. It is indeed contrary to EU law if EU citizens who take up residence in another member State lose fundamental rights as a consequence of exercising their right of free movement. But I fully disagree both with his argumentation and his proposed conclusion which are, in my views, rather disproportionate with the problem to solve. There are the two ways to solve the problem, the European and the national ones. As shown by Rainer Bauböck’s comments, the national way would lead towards difficult and tricky considerations, like acquisition and loss of nationality by EU citizens. I agree that those topics will probably have to be considered at EU level sooner or later. I also agree with Rainer Bauböck that all immigrants should be offered opportunities to naturalise after they have become long-term residents, at least if they so wish. Nevertheless for the time being and since the conclusions of the Edinburgh European Council of December 1992, such topics are explicitly considered as outside the EU’s competences and no legal basis can be found for them in the present Treaties. I have strong doubts that the case law of the European Court could by itself reverse this consensus and the taboo. The European way suggested by the ‘Let me vote’ initiative offers a much lighter solution, much more in line with what European citizenship really is. I leave the interpretation of the somewhat abstract definition given by the Treaty to lawyers. For me, as a European citizen, I understand European citizenship as the right to be considered as a national by any member state other than the one whose nationality I hold, as soon as I am in relation with its authorities, in one way or another. If, as a German, I drive through the Belgian territory by car at a speed exceeding Belgian limitations, I can of course be fined, but under the same conditions as the nationals of Belgium; © The Author(s) 2019 R. Bauböck (ed.), Debating European Citizenship, IMISCOE Research Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89905-3_4 27