Trends in Birthright Citizenship in EU 28 2013-2020 Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia), and may include, for example, language tests, and character and economic independence requirements. Thus, while the majority of EU Member States have ius soli provisions targeting foundlings and stateless children, and a considerable number have provisions for the weaker form of ius soli after birth, only a handful of countries provide any kind of ius soli citizenship acquisition at birth for children born in the state. (Percentages are lower than in the Americas, though higher than in Asia and Africa.) 5. Changes in ius soli provision 2013-2020 8 EU Member States amended their ius soli provisions since 2013: Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Sweden and Portugal. Here we outline some of the more substantial changes and identify some trends. These concerned prior parental residence requirements, statelessness at birth, and facilitated naturalisation for children born in the state.10 The most significant change in general ius soli (i) for a child born in the country was the reduction of the prior parental residence requirement in Portugal from 5 to 2 years. This makes it the shortest period of prior parental residence required in Europe Five countries amended or clarified their provision for those who would otherwise be stateless (iv). In 2014, Hungary restricted the declaration procedure for stateless persons legally resident for five years to apply only to those born in the country. It had previously been available to all stateless persons who met the residence conditions. Estonia in 2015 extended citizenship by declaration to children born in Estonia, whose parents are stateless or of ‘undetermined citizenship’(applied to the Russian minority who did not gain Russian or Estonian citizenship in 1992) if the child has lived in Estonia for at least five years.11 Previously the parents had to apply through a naturalisation process for the child before the age of 15. Latvia introduced a law providing automatic citizenship at birth from 2020 to children born in Latvia to parents with the status of ‘non-citizens’ (applied to the Russian minority who did not gain Russian or Latvian citizenship in 1991), and therefore would otherwise be at risk of statelessness. Previously this required a conditional declaration process after birth.12 10 In addition, in 2014 Germany removed the requirement that persons acquiring ius soli citizenship on the basis of prior parental residence should choose at 21 between German and other citizenship for persons with at least 8 years of habitual residence in Germany, 6 years of schooling in Germany, or with a German educational degree. 11 See European Network on Statelessness. Ending Childhood Statelessness: A Study on Estonia. Last accessed at: https://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/Estonia.pdf, February 20, 2020. This also applied retroactively to children under 15 at the time the law came into force in 2016. After this reporting period, from 28 January 2020 Estonia has introduced access by simple application also to children, one of whose parents is of ‘undetermined citizenship’ and the other is a citizen of a third country. Parents or grandparents of these children should have lived in Estonia at the time of the restoration of independence. Vadim Poleshchuk. Estonia welcomes new minor citizens. Last accessed at http://globalcit.eu/estonia-welcomes-new-minor-citizens/, 20 February 2020. 12 As of 1 July 2016, 4,816 under 15 were vulnerable to statelessness (Council of Europe. (2019). “Latvia Takes Important Step toward Eliminating Child Statelessness”. Last accessed at: https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/latvia-takes-important-step-toward-eliminating-child-statelessness , January 30, 2020. 8 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2020/2 - © 2020 Authors