Trends in Birthright Citizenship in EU 28 2013-2020 2. Varieties of ius sanguinis citizenship in the EU 28 2013-2020 Among EU Member States ius sanguinis, that is citizenship based on descent from a citizen, is the most salient form of citizenship provision. It may apply differently to persons born to a citizen in the country and those born to a citizen abroad.2 As of 1 January 2020, all EU Member States, (including UK) have ius sanguinis provisions both in the country and abroad. Births to citizens in the country Most EU Member States (25) apply ius sanguinis unconditionally to births to a citizen in the country: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. In Latvia, a child who acquires a second citizenship at birth has to choose between the two citizenships at adulthood.3 In two countries, Finland and Malta, children born out of wedlock to a citizen father do not automatically acquire the father’s citizenship. In Finland, however, the child acquires citizenship if the father recognizes the child. Births to citizens abroad More conditions are applied to children born abroad to citizens. Yet 18 countries provide automatic, unconditional citizenship to children of citizens born abroad: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. Other Member States make the acquisition of citizenship depend on registration, either for all children born abroad to citizens (Portugal), for those born to citizens who are permanently resident abroad (Cyprus), or for those born abroad to citizens who were themselves born abroad (Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Malta). In the UK the parent must have been born in the country for citizenship to be automatically acquired; if the parent has at some point resided there for at least three years, or if the child takes up residence, citizenship may be acquired with some further conditions. The conditions of wedlock for the application of ex patre citizenship in Finland and Malta also apply abroad. In Malta, in addition to this condition, for citizenship to be acquired automatically the citizen parent must have been born in Malta. Some countries provide automatic citizenship for children born abroad only if both parents are citizens, otherwise requiring additional steps for citizenship acquisition (Croatia, Latvia and Slovenia). 2 For categorisations of citizenship provision, see Jeffers et al. (2017). “How to Measure the Purposes of Citizenship Laws: Explanatory Report for the CITLAW Indicators.” Last accessed at: https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/64605/CITLAW_3.0.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y , 19 February 2020 3 Citizenship of certain countries – EU and EFTA Member States, NATO Member States, Australia, Brazil or New Zealand –are excepted from this prohibition. 2 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2020/2 - © 2020 Authors