Trends in Birthright Citizenship in EU 28 2013-2020 Other countries have introduced more expansive descent provisions. Croatia from 2020 has extended the time within which a person born abroad to a Croatian citizen can acquire citizenship by registration from 18 to 21. In addition, citizenship will be awarded automatically to persons who are born abroad to a Croatian citizen, if the other parent is stateless, even if they do not meet other conditions. Portugal in 2015 extended a grant of citizenship through registration, without a residence requirement, to a person born abroad who is the grandchild of a citizen, on the condition that the grandparent did not lose their citizenship and was Portuguese by origin (born in Portugal), as long as the applicant has some effective ties to Portugal. Another category of reform involves extending more specific provision for citizenship by descent over a longer term in connection with the forced nature of the ancestor’s departure. In 2019, Austria extended the right to citizenship to third and fourth generation descendants of at least one ancestor who was forced to flee the country during the Nazi regime, and extended the end date for leaving Austria for this reason from 1945 up to 1955, so that it now covers also Holocaust survivors who left Austria after the war and before the country became fully independent.5 Spain (2014) and Portugal (2015) took steps toward granting citizenship to descendants of Jewish communities expelled from Spain and Portugal from the 15th century. In Portugal an existing provision allowing naturalisation for members of Portuguese communities abroad was extended to include members of Sephardic communities. In Spain descendants of Jewish communities already had some preferential access to naturalisation, but were still required to renounce their other nationality. The Spanish law of 2015 opened up the possibility of naturalisation for those of Sephardic origin who have a special relationship with Spain, without a renunciation requirement. The Spanish provision was, however, a temporary provision which lapsed in October 2019. 5 In 2019 Germany introduced new administrative decrees intended to broaden the existing provision under the Basic Law facilitating citizenship acquisition for descendants of those persecuted in the Nazi era. German Ministry of the Interior Press Release 30 August 2019. Last accessed at https://uk.diplo.de/blob/2244512/012493c208923714e587704809e4b8ea/citizenship-decree--data.pdf 5 March 2020. 4 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2020/2 - © 2020 Authors