Citizenship Loss and Deprivation in the European Union (27 + 1) The residence-abroad condition is not required in every country’s legislation. 15 Member States make it an explicit condition for renouncing nationality.14 Various standards qualify residence abroad, some being more demanding than others. Bulgaria requires individuals to “permanently reside abroad,” the Czech Republic to “permanently live abroad,” France or Spain to “habitually reside abroad,” and Austria to have “resided continuously abroad for at least five years.” The other Member States such as Greece, Ireland, or Italy only require a foreign residence, without imposing any special qualification. For Finland and Sweden, the condition is even negative: individuals must not be domiciled in these countries to renounce their nationality. However, this does not prevent the authority in charge of interpreting the notion of ‘residence’ to consider that it implies a certain duration, among other things, to distinguish it from a simple ‘domicile.’15 Legislators generally set other conditions, the most common being related to military obligations: individuals must be free of any military duties to relinquish their nationality. This condition, explicitly included in the legislation of seven Member States,16 prevents individuals from using renunciation as a means to escape their duties. This condition is, however, biased towards men (only Norway, a non-EU State, makes military service compulsory for both men and women) and seems a bit outdated as many Member States who have implemented it no longer have compulsory military service (among these seven Member States, only Austria and Finland still have compulsory military service). The other widespread condition is to be free from criminal prosecution or sentence. This condition is explicitly present in the legislation of seven Member States.17 In criminal matters, the personal jurisdiction of a state effectively depends on the suspected perpetrator’s nationality. Would personal jurisdiction then disappear with the termination of that nationality? The only certainty is that nationality is a required condition at the time of commission of the offence; it is less clear whether this nationality is still required later on to initiate and sustain a prosecution. In any case, forbidding individuals to renounce their nationality while being under criminal investigation prevents any difficulty regarding this matter.18 Finally, other Member States also specify that individuals must be free of public, 19 or even private20 debts before being able to renounce their nationality. In these latter cases, renunciation of nationality is implicitly linked with permanent emigration, which makes debt collection more difficult. Generally, as specified in Finland’s legislation, renunciation is not suitable “if the aim of the release is to escape an obligation related to Finnish citizenship.” In many countries, renunciation is therefore closely linked to a general principle of good faith. Temporal conditions also exist. Since nationality is closely related to military duties, Ireland, Malta, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Cyprus forbid renunciation in time of war. More standard temporal conditions include an age limit for renouncing. In Slovenia for instance, renunciation by declaration is impossible for individuals over 25 years of age, although older citizens can still be released by the decision of the authorities. Some countries have set a deadline for relinquishing after the acquisition of a foreign nationality: one year in France and 30 days in Latvia. 14 Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. 15 Reese, W. L. M. and Green, R. S. (1953). “That Elusive Word, ‘Residence.’” Vanderbilt Law Review, 6(3), 561-580. 16 Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, and Germany. 17 Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. 18 In international criminal law, see e.g. Deen-Racsmany, Z. (2001). “The Nationality of the Offender and the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.” American Journal of International Law, 95(3), 612-618. 19 Croatia, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Croatia and Latvia charge the individual with an additional “exit tax” to be paid to obtain the renunciation. 20 Croatia and Slovenia. European University Institute 5