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naturalization. Individuals who derive their right to reside legally in a Member
State through EU legislation may qualify for naturalization because of such
legislation.95 The cases of Zhu and Chen and Ruiz Zambrano, which prompted
amendments of respectively Irish and Belgian nationality laws, are prime examples of how EU free movement rights affect a Member State’s policy on the
acquisition of nationality iure soli.96 Moreover, existing EU directives, such as
the Qualification Directive and Long Term Resident Directive, have a similar
effect, as most nationality laws allow refugees or permanent residents to obtain nationality after a certain period of legal residence. Despite this effect, the
requirements for naturalizing refugees or long-term residents remain within
the competence of Member States. A statelessness identification and protection directive would be of similar scope.
Second, an established line of case law of the CJEU requires the Member
States to have ‘due regard’ to EU law when regulating access to their nationalities.97 The exact scope of the term ‘due regard’ is being gradually defined
by the CJEU in its case law on EU citizenship. The Rottmann judgment98 made
clear that particularly when statelessness is at stake, the CJEU is prepared to
hold Member States’ nationality practices to high international standards. In
this case, the CJEU recognised that Germany was in principle free to decide
who acquires and who loses German nationality, but those decisions need to
have due regard to EU law, as withdrawal of German nationality in the case
of Rottmann also meant that EU citizenship was lost. The Court assessed,
therefore, whether the decision to withdraw Rottmann’s nationality was in
line with the 1961 Convention and the European Convention on Nationality,
95
See more in Swider, K., Pre-Accession Changes to Residence-based Naturalisation
Requirements in Ten New EU Member States, EUI Working Paper Series (Florence,
European University Institute, 2010), pp. 3–4.
96
E CJ, Case C-200/02 Zhu and Chen of 19 October 2004; ECJ, Case C-34/09 Ruiz Zambrano
of 8 March 2011; Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act of 2004, No. 38, Amending Irish
Nationality and Citizenship Act of 1956, adopted on the 15th December 2004, entered
into force on the 1st January 2005. See also Act on the Twenty-Seventh Amendment of
the Irish Constitution of 24th June 2004, based on the referendum on the 11th of June
2004; Rostek, K. & G. Davies, ‘The Impact of Union Citizenship on national citizenship’,
10(5) European Integration Online Papers (2006), part 3.3. See also the amendment of
Art. 10 of the Belgian Law on Nationality (Wetboek van de Belgische nationaliteit 1984)
of 28 December 2006 (by the Law Nr. 2006–12–27/32, art. 380, 009).
97 See ECJ C-369/90, Micheletti, 7 July 1992, and other judgments that followed on nationality matters, such as C-192/99 (Kaur) of 20 February 2001; C-200/02 (Zhu and Chen) of
19 October 2004.
98 Judgment of the ECJ C-135/08 (Rottmann) of 2 March 2010.
European Journal of Migration and Law 19 (2017) 101–135