Thesis defence Just EU Citizenship. The Marketization of EU Citizenship and the Equality Ideal Add to calendar 2026-06-05 15:30 2026-06-05 17:30 Europe/Rome Just EU Citizenship. The Marketization of EU Citizenship and the Equality Ideal Sala degli Stemmi Villa Salviati - Castle YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Jun 05 2026 15:30 - 17:30 CEST Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati - Castle Organised by Department of Law Thesis defence by Christian Gormsen This thesis discusses the normative foundations for a just EU citizenship, against the backdrop of the marketization of citizenship in the EU. By enabling the exchange of national citizenship (and in turn EU citizenship) for financial capital, marketization challenges existing conceptions of EU citizenship. Should EU citizenship be distributed by means of the market? And should it be for Member States to decide who gets to be a citizen of the EU? These are the central questions of this thesis. Its core claim is that neither the market nor nationality should determine access to EU citizenship, including the valuable transnational civil, political, and social rights that come with it. Defending a liberal-egalitarian conception of EU citizenship and a political conception of social justice at the EU-level, it is suggested that it is plausible to conceive of distributive justice norms in the EU and EU citizenship particularly. In line with a principle of fair equality opportunity, it is argued – at the general level – that EU citizenship suffers from a structural justice deficit that stems from the use of nationality as the link between the individual and the EU. Within this framework, nationality can indeed be seen – like social class in the 20th century – as a morally arbitrary concept that should not determine the personal boundaries of the political community of the EU. Moreover, the same principle of equality of opportunity suggests that marketization is not fair toward the individuals that constitute this community, who would not have agreed to an uneven, market-based distribution of citizenship rights (or: goods). Marketization thus deepens an existing justice deficit in EU citizenship. It is suggested that this deficit can be mitigated if we dare give more autonomy to EU citizenship, disentangle it from nationality, and introduce a supranationally shared standard of residence over time instead. Register Related events