2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(1) Cases of state succession have been responsible for the majority of statelessness within the EU. 32 State succession essentially involves the transfer of a territory and a population from a predecessor state to a successor state; it is a transfer of sovereignty. Problems of statelessness commonly accompany such changes of sovereignty, as they necessarily involve a change of nationality for at least part of the population involved. 33 In the context of state succession, statelessness arises when nationality laws adopted by the newly established states are not complementary to either the pre-existing nationality laws or to one another, with the risk that certain individuals not acquiring the nationality of either state. 34 This was also the case in Europe, where in situ statelessness occurred on a substantive scale following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (‘SFRY’), and the split of Czechoslovakia in the 1990s. Notably, discriminatory elements introduced in newly drafted or restored nationality laws significantly contributed to the generation of statelessness. It is for this reason that minority populations — the Roma in the cases of the SFRY and Czechoslovakia, and the ethnic Russians in Estonia and Latvia — primarily fell victim to statelessness. 35 While cases of state succession have generated large in situ stateless populations in the above-described Member States, most are confronted with the problem as it arises in a migratory context. As a result of the so-called ‘migration crisis’ of 2015, and the entry into Europe of migrants on a massive scale, the stateless populations of a number of Member States significantly increased. 36 Statelessness in a migratory context manifests itself in various ways, and can be both a cause and a consequence of migration. 37 To a great extent, stateless migrants arriving in EU Member States were already without nationality prior to leaving their country of origin. Cases in point here are the stateless Kurds and Palestinian refugees from Syria. Over a period of two years, Member States 32 33 34 35 36 37 Olivier Willem Vonk, Maarten Peter Vink and Gerard-René de Groot, Protection against Statelessness: Trends and Regulations in Europe (Report, EUDO Citizenship Observatory 2013) <https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/30201/eudocit_vink_degroot_statelessness_fi nal.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y>. Weis (n 8). Under international law, ‘state succession’ refers to the ‘replacement of one State by another in the responsibility for the international relations of territory’: Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties, opened for signature 23 August 1978, 1946 UNTS 3 (entered into force 6 November 1996) art 2(1)(b). It is furthermore relevant to note that state succession can take various forms. See, eg, Claude Emanuelli, ‘State Succession, Then and Now, with Special Reference to the Louisiana Purchase (1803)’ (2003) 63(4) Louisiana Law Review 1277. Kees Groenendijk, ‘Nationality, Minorities and Statelessness: The Case of the Baltic States’ (1993) 4(3) Helsinki Monitor 13; Laura van Waas, Nationality Matters: Statelessness under International Law (Intersentia 2008) ch 6. It derives from the notion that the nationality laws of the new states do not complement each other that statelessness in the context of state succession thus inherently results from a conflict of nationality laws. For a more in-depth analysis about statelessness among ethnic Russians, see, eg, James Hughes, ‘“Exit” in Deeply Divided Societies: Regimes of Discrimination in Estonia and Latvia and the Potential for Russophone Migration’ (2005) 43(4) Journal of Common Market Studies 739. With regards to statelessness among Roma in the EU, see, eg, Jessica Parra, ‘Stateless Roma in the European Union: Reconciling the Doctrine of Sovereignty Concerning Nationality Laws with International Agreements to Reduce and Avoid Statelessness’ (2011) 34(6) Fordham International Law Journal 1666. ‘Stateless Persons in Europe’, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (Web Page, 2017) <http://www.worldsstateless.org/continents/europe/stateless-persons-in-europe>. Sophie Nonnenmacher and Ryszard Cholewinski, ‘The Nexus between Statelessness and Migration’ in Alice Edwards and Laura van Waas (eds), Nationality and Statelessness under International Law (Cambridge University Press 2014). 30