European Citizenship
Résumé
European citizenship, which was created by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, expressed the Member States’ desire for a qualitative leap in the construction of Europe, after a long period of soul-searching about the participation of the Europeans in the community project. Europeans remained only economic actors of the Community process rather than full-fledged European citizens. In 1973, the difficult economic and political context made it necessary to rethink the future of the European project after the revival of 1969 and the failure of economic and monetary union projects in the Werner Plan. In spring 1985, the committees submitted their reports before the Brussels European Council of March 29 and 30. European citizenship appears to have stalled: it is currently unable to help construct a legitimate political union, and it cannot rely on a truly shared identity, representative and participative democracy having lost momentum in spite of various attempts encouraging citizens’ political participation.