Chapter 3. The Council of Europe CoE institutions and bodies: expert bodies on nationality The Committee of Experts on Nationality (CJ-NA) was a dedicated expert group established by the CoE in the course of the development of legal instruments relating to nationality. The CJ-NA – formerly the Committee of Experts on Multiple Nationality (CJ-PL)553 – was a subordinate committee of the CDCJ554 and was in charge of intergovernmental cooperation in the area of nationality matters. The CJ-NA brought together officials with (practical) expertise on citizenship issues from each Member State, but also observers from other states and international organizations. Their work (and that of its Working Party (CJ-NA GT)) included the preparation of proposals for legal instruments that could be adopted in the field of nationality, as well as the organization of the European Conferences on Nationality555 and proposals for follow-up556 and preparing and updating the European Bulletin on Nationality. As such, this Committee provided a forum for cooperation and legal development for nationality issues. The CJ-NA existed up to 2005, but its work was discontinued after that due to issues with funding.557 In 2008, the CM set up an ad hoc advisory group with the purpose of following up on the Action Plan of the CDCJ as regards nationality matters in particular: the Group of Specialists on Nationality (CJ-S-NAT).558 The CJ-S-NAT fell under the authority of the CDCJ and its task was to promote and contribute “to the reinforcement of the existing instruments of the Council of Europe in the field of nationality and to make proposals to the CDCJ”.559 It also was to propose themes to the CDCJ for the 4th European Conference on Nationality. The CJ-S-NAT consisted of nine experts on nationality matters. The Group presented its final report in 2009560, which demonstrates that a large part of the work of the CJ-S-NAT was devoted to draft ing a proposal for a non-binding recommendation on the nationality of children561, which is introduced below. Furthermore, the Group came 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 Cf ibid, para 4. On the CDCJ, see also F. Th. Zilverentant, ‘Bericht uit Straatsburg’ in Hans Ulrich Jessurun d’Oliveira (ed), Trends in het nationaliteitsrecht. Nationaal en Internationaal [Trends in Nationality Law. National and International] (Sdu Uitgevers 1998) 49–51, 49. A total of four Conferences on Nationality have been organized in the context of the CoE: 1st European Conference on Nationality ‘Trends and Developments in National and International Law on Nationality’ (1999); 2nd European Conference on Nationality ‘Challenges to National and International Law on Nationality at the Beginning of the New Millennium’ (2001); 3rd European Conference on Nationality ‘Nationality and the Child’ (2004); 4th European Conference on Nationality ‘Concepts of Nationality in a Globalised World’ (2010). See for instance CoE, ‘Revised Terms of Reference of the Committee of Experts on Nationality (CJ-NA) (Appendix 8, Item 10.1a)’ (1999) Official Gazette of the Council of Europe (Committee of Ministers part-volume) 96 (under c). See CJ-NA, ‘Report of the 21st Meeting’, CDCJ (2004) 21 / CJ-NA (2004) 5 rev., para 75; CJ-NA GT, ‘Report of the 26th Meeting’, CJ-NA GT (2005) 2, para 7. CoE, ‘Group of Specialists on Nationality. Terms of Reference for 2008’, CJ-S-Nat (2008) 1. Ibid. CJ-S-NAT, ‘Final Report’, CJ-S-NAT (2008) 24. Th is resulted in Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)13 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the Nationality of Children (1073rd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies, 9 December 2009). Intersentia 107