Europejczycy czy narody europejskie. Kwestia obywatelstwa europejskiego w refleksji Josepha H.H. Weilera
Europeans or European Nations: The Question of European Citizenship in the Refl ections of J.H.H. Weiler

Summary/Abstract: This article attempts to look at the problem of European citizenship based on the refl ections of a famous American professor of international law, Joseph H.H. Weiler. First, a critical approach to the failure to properly defi ne the substantive scope of this issue is shown. European citizenship is treated as a kind of marketing label to convince Europeans to identify with the European Union (EU) and its institutions. Meanwhile, the right approach to this issue could contribute to a better defi nition of the European demos and thus provide the EU with an increase in social legitimacy, which is currently experiencing a crisis. To properly defi ne this concept, it is crucial to fi rst distinguish between the notions of nationality and statehood. The former is inseparable from the ideas of belonging and specifi city. By analogy with the separation of state and nation, the author suggests separating citizenship from nationality. Values codifi ed in European law, rights closely related to civil society and fi nally the rights derived from a supranational idea that transcend the nation and refuse to discriminate based on nationality are to remain the substance of the European demos. The separation of citizenship from nationality opens up the possibility of the actual coexistence of different – that is, functioning at different levels – citizenships, and thus more than one demos. Weiler presents various possibilities for the coexistence of these demoi, at the same time proposing his own, original solution to the coexistence of these citizenships, possible thanks to the ideas of their total interdependence and supranationalism, understood in his own way.

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