HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER

explicitly mentioned in TFEU 61 . Only if such an interpretation is accepted, it will be possible for any EU citizen to stand up and say “ civic europaeus sum ”. 62 The second and third questions are intertwined, and so I will comment on them simultaneously. One of them is whether EU citizenship is the right instrument to promote human rights. I would argue that the EJC’s case law, as it stands now, treats EU citizenship not as a human rights tool, but as a tool for integration. In short, what could be a goal (human rights) is used merely as a mean for further integration. The evidence is the hesitant usage of the Charter and somewhat sketchy protection of fundamental rights in cases, where the Charter was invoked (i.e. ignoring case law of ECtHR, 63 namely in Chavez Vilchez participative rights of a child). 64 Another piece to that puzzle is that the ECJ always finds a free movement link, on which than operates. This shows that the story of EU citizenship is still a story “ connected more to the progression of the polity than to protection of the individual ”. 65 Although there is a space to change that narrative and to base EU citizenship on fundamental rights standing, this chance has not been grasped, yet. This does not mean that it will not be grasped eventually, bearing in mind that the ECJ has, nevertheless, created enough space to do so. Given that, citizenship is the best tool to fight for human rights in the EU. Notwithstanding the exclusionary aspect, I do not see any other way, as promising as is citizenship, to achieve the same result.

FONS, J. A. Epilogue on EU Citizenship: Hopes and Fears. In: EU Citizenship and Federalism. Cambridge University Press. 2017, p. 751–781. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139680714.032. p. 770. 61 Ibid. p. 762. 62 Case C-168/91, paragraph 46 of the Opinion. 63 DE BÚRCA, G. After the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: The Court of Justice as a Human Rights Adjudicator? Maastricht journal of European and comparative law. [online]. 2013, edit. 20, no. 2, p. 168-184. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1023263X1302000202. p. 176–178. 64 VAN EIJKEN, H. and PHOA, P. The scope of Article 20 TFEU clarified in Chavez-Vilchez: are the fundamental rights of minor EU citizens coming of age? European law review, 2018. 43 (6), p. 949– 970. Available at: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/377519. p. 12. 65 NIC SHUIBHNE, N. The Resilience of EU Market Citizenship. Common market law review. [online]. 2010, edit. 47, no. 6, p. 1597–1628. Available at: https://doi.org/10.54648/COLA2010068. p. 1611.

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