Jules Lepoutre renounce. (2) Such consent may not be withheld by the Contracting Party whose nationality a person of full age possesses ipso jure, provided that the said person has, for the past ten years, had his ordinary residence outside the territory of that Party and also provided that he has his ordinary residence in the territory of the Party whose nationality he intends to retain.” The 1997 European Convention on Nationality summarises this international legal framework by providing both for statelessness prevention and for habitual residence abroad in case of loss of nationality at the initiative of the individual. Article 8 specifies that “(1) Each State Party shall permit the renunciation of its nationality provided the persons concerned do not thereby become stateless. (2) However, a State Party may provide in its internal law that renunciation may be effected only by nationals who are habitually resident abroad.” To date, there is no European case law connected to the voluntary renunciation of nationality. As the loss of nationality can cause the loss of European citizenship, EU law would certainly apply. However, the voluntary nature of the loss – i.e., the fact that the person is directly at the origin of the loss – would probably prevent any violation of the principle of proportionality. More interesting is the question of the refusal of the national authorities to grant the release to a citizen who would need it to acquire the nationality of another Member State (e.g., a Member State that requires the renunciation as a condition for naturalisation, see below 3.2.1.). Would this situation be considered as an obstacle for EU citizens’ free movement? While no final answer is yet possible, the Lounes case ruled by the grand chamber of the Court of Justice in 2017 provides some clues.12 In this judgement, the Court ruled that “the rights conferred on a Union citizen by Article 21(1) TFEU […] are intended, amongst other things, to promote the gradual integration of the Union citizen concerned in the society of the host Member State” and that, logically, nationality acquisition is a way to “become permanently integrated in that State.” These words encourage the idea that asking for naturalisation is embedded in free movement rights of European citizens. In this way, the national legislation or governmental decision which would prevent the European citizen from asking for naturalisation in his or her host Member State could be considered as an obstacle to this “gradual integration” and thereby contrary to EU law. This reasoning is nevertheless at risk to be moderated, if not eliminated, when confronted to the principle of state sovereignty in nationality law. 2.2. Legislations of Member States Regarding Renunciation (L01)13 2.2.1. General Conditions of Renunciation All 28 Member States of the EU allow for the voluntary loss of nationality. Thus renunciation is the most widespread mode of loss of nationality. Legislation in every country comes with full statelessness prevention: individuals can only renounce their nationality if they possess another nationality, or have a certain right to acquire another one. In several countries, individuals are allowed to renounce their nationality in the expectation of acquiring another one – in cases where the country of naturalisation does not accept dual nationality. However, in this situation the loss of nationality is always conditional upon the acquisition of the other nationality. In the EU28, individuals cannot relinquish nationality by a sole act of will; statelessness prevention applies in all cases and prevents any risk of being without any nationality, in full compliance with international and European law. 12 Toufik Lounes v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, ECLI:EU:C:2017:862. 13 This report uses the GLOBALCIT typology of modes of loss of citizenship, which contains 15 such modes. L01 refers to the first mode, which is voluntary renunciation, L02 to involuntary loss due to residence abroad, etc. See http://globalcit.eu/loss-of-citizenship. 4 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Working Papers