How European Citizenship Produces a Differential Political Space

Since its formalisation in 1992, European citizenship as a membership status detached from nationality has been regarded as a promise of a ‘democracy to come’ (Derrida, 2006) . There is a close historical connection between the fall of the Berlin wall and the introduction of a common citizen status for the peoples of the present and future member states. The Maastricht Treaty was a self-proclaimed further step towards the accomplishment of a more integrated, more democratic and larger Union, and the establishment of a European citizenship was meant to be the sign and the foundation of these future developments (Preuss, 1998 ; Linklater, 1998). At the same time, almost twenty years later the present state of Europe seems to be much less encouraging. The economic crisis that started in 2008 has amplified the differences among EU member states : the economic and social conditions of European citizens have significantly diverged since the introduction of the common currency in 2000, and old stereotypes and mistrust have reappeared in the public debates and controversies (Hadjimichalis, 2011 ; Shore, 2012). The divergent social and economic conditions, and the luck of a form of solidarity among European citizens, represent a threat to the credibility of European citizenship, understood as a symbol of political unity. Starting from an analysis of the historical background of EU citizenship and of the present conditions of its functioning, this chapter attempts to provide a definition of EU citizenship as a tool for building spatial differentiation at the continental level.