Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2020 C 2(1) The Impact of Statelessness and the Value of EU Citizenship Those that are granted EU citizenship on the basis of Member State nationality find themselves in a privileged position: they are able to benefit from rights made available to them through national citizenship and EU citizenship. Stateless persons find themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to the enjoyment of rights. Those belonging to the vast stateless population living in the EU, like most individuals lacking a nationality, generally find themselves unable to enjoy a large number of rights and face additional hardships as a result of discrimination, marginalisation and social exclusion. These rights-related challenges may be attributed to the fact that nationality acts as an enabling right. 60 With Member State nationality further constituting a prerequisite for the grant of EU citizenship, stateless persons, unsurprisingly, are unable to enjoy the additional rights attached to it under the current formulation of EU citizenship. Yet, it is precisely the grant of these rights that could be beneficial for stateless persons and facilitate nationality acquisition in one of the Member States. To explore the potential benefits of EU citizenship to stateless persons in greater detail, please consider the following hypothetical scenario. Following academic calls and successful lobbying for a separation of EU citizenship and Member State nationality, a revision of the ratione personae of EU citizenship has been approved. The second sentence of art 20(1) TFEU now reads that EU citizenship shall be conferred upon every person holding the nationality of a Member State and, in the absence of such nationality, upon every person declared an EU citizen. 61 In light of this newly autonomous nature of EU citizenship, the necessary competences to regulate its acquisition have furthermore been conferred upon the EU, which it previously lacked. 62 The acquisition of the status has been conditioned upon legal residence of a period of five years in the territory of one of the Member States to demonstrate the existence of a genuine connection. 63 This residency requirement may be eased for those that have been identified as 60 61 62 63 Owen (n 21). See also van Waas (n 34). The essence of this proposed treaty revision was originally suggested by Dora Kostakopoulou, ‘Who Should be a Citizen of the Union? Toward an Autonomous European Union Citizenship’ Verfassungsblog (Blog Post, 16 January 2019) <https://verfassungsblog.de/whoshould-be-a-citizen-of-the-union-toward-an-autonomous-european-union-citizenship/>. It must further be noted that the model of EU citizenship as theorised here would not only benefit stateless persons, but may also be granted to third-country nationals (‘TCNs’) that have resided in the territory for the required period of time. However, it is recognised that EU citizenship has added value specifically for stateless persons as, unlike TCNs, they do not possess national citizenship rights to rely upon. A more detailed discussion of (the lack of) EU competences in the area of nationality and citizenship is provided in Part 4(A). Residency on the territory presents an obvious method of demonstrating the existence of such a connection in light of the various modes of nationality acquisition which have shortly been set out in Part II. These modes are generally illustrative of a genuine connection and residency (jus domicile) is the one option that remains in the absence of the links that could be acquired through birth on the territory (jus soli) or ancestral relations (jus sanguinis). 34