Elspeth Guild
The European Union is currently suffering a minor identity crisis. Let us hope that this
episode will pass rapidly, but for the moment it is causing headaches for civil servants
in the EU institutions and the member states as well as uncertainty and a little anxiety
among EU citizens and third-country nationals in long-term residence in the EU. The
problem is that some member states are no longer sure that all EU citizens should be treated
equally – the fundamental claim of citizenship dating from the 1789 French revolution –
while others are outraged that their citizens might be treated as less equal EU citizens than
others.
