What exactly is an EU national?

Question

What exactly is an EU national?

If someone was born in the UK by British parents are they an EU national? Is a German born person with full blooded Bavarian parents an EU national. If you met all of these birthright requirements but you live in Australia for instance are you still an EU national or do you you have to actually live in the EU. Does simply having an EU passport make you an EU national?

Answer 1

yes, by having an EU passport u are an EU national....if the country u are born into is a member of the EU, then you are an EU national through birthright

Answer 2

General answer below, trying to address your specifics first.

Born in Britain to British parents, this is a European citizen.

Not absolutely sure what you mean by Bavarian blood,  one usually acquires German citizenship if a parent is a German citizen, irrespective of place of birth.

None of the EU nations would deprive you of your nationality based on living elsewhere, so the EU citizenship is also retained. Some nations do not permit dual nationality and in a some cases it is possible to lose nationality by becoming a citizen of another country, but I don't think any EU nations do that. BTW the USA does not prevent you from gaining or keeping another citizenship, though it used ito. Generally residence somewhere else will not cause a problem. You do  not have to live in the EU to be an EU citizen; I am an Irish citizen by birthright from my mother, have never lived in Europe but am an EU citizen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Un...

Citizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992. It exists alongside national citizenship and provides additional rights to nationals of European Union Member States.

"Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall complement and not replace national citizenship.

"All nationals of Member States are citizens of the union. "It is for each Member State, having due regard to Community law, to lay down the conditions for the acquisition and loss of nationality."

Pretty much if you have a passport that says Eurpoean Union on it you are an EU "citizen" (not national).

If you are a citizen of one of the countries in the EU you are almost certainly an EU citizen.

However, there are a lot of exceptions for those with connections to the UK. The UK has a complex system of nationalities based on the former British Empire and not all who have British passports have EU passports.

British nationals who are "United Kingdom nationals for Community purposes", namely:

    * British citizens;

    * British subjects with the right of abode; and

    * British Overseas Territories citizens connected to Gibraltar

are European Union citizens under European Union law.

However, by virtue of a special provision in the UK Accession Treaty, British Citizens who are connected with the Channel Islands and Isle of Man (i.e. considered "Channel Islanders and Manxmen") do not have the right to live in other European Union countries (except the Republic of Ireland, through the long-established Common Travel Area) unless they have connections through descent or residence with the United Kingdom itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nat...

Answer 3

All of the examples you listed above would provide for EU citizenship. The only problem would be that last one, as it would depend on whether you hold the citizenship of the EU country. An EU national is simply a person who holds a nationality of an EU member country. There are some exceptions to this, as most of the UK's overseas territories are not included in the EU but they nonetheless hold UK citizenship and are able to enjoy full EU citizen rights wen they move to Europe.

However, since Britain was a major colonial power and had many colonies, there are some British nationals who neither fall under the category of British citizen or excluded territory. For example, before Hong Kong was given back to China, the people of Hong Kong who were going to lose their UK nationality were given the status of British Nationality (Overseas). And since under EU law, all nationals of all EU countries (excluding already excluded overseas territories) have equal rights. Since Hong Kong wasn't included in the excluded overseas territories list, and many the people of Hong Kong hold a form of British nationality, some EU and EEA countries are insisting that they too are full EU nationals and are granting BN(O) holders full EU rights.

You might be interested to know that citizens of the European Economic Area (EEA) are also entitled to the same rights as EU nationals. The reason behind this is that the European Free Trade Area was the predecessor to the EU and when the EU was formed Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway all decided to stay outside of the union, so the EEA was formed in order to allow these countries to enjoy the same rights as EU citizens.

Answer 4

An EU national is a national of any EU nation. Everyone you described is an EU national.