Thursday 7 December, 2023, by Admin
We have now taken the EU Citizenship case to the European Court of Human Rights, and perhaps we can quote this comment "Rights granted must never be removed without consent. I never gave consent for the removal of my rights as an EU Citizen" . This quote comes from the crowdfunder which has been set up to answer the question: Can it in reality be lawful for any politicians to "remove" the EU Citizenship and Rights of 67 million UK EU Citizens?
The crowdfunder can be found here https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/uk-eu-citizenship-goes-to-the-echr
The non-binding UK EU Referendum vote of 23 June 2016 led to a small majority asking to leave the EU , and that majority was only achieved by disenfranchising approximately 5 million voting-age UK citizens living abroad as an aspect of the 2015 Referendum Act, a profoundly undemocratic process - and also of course by telling many lies about the EU, and EU Membership . The Referendum was also tainted with criminality, as was established by the Electoral Commission.
After the vote of 23 June 2016 the question arose as to what effect , if any , that vote would have on the EU Citizenship and Rights of all 67 million UK EU Citizens. A number of us were advised to apply to the European Court of Justice, and the Court was asked in case T-252/20 to find that EU Citizenship was a permanent status.
Rather than consider our legal arguments, although having promised to do so , the Court delayed for some years , and finally ruled that the case was inadmissable on 15 June 2023. This ruling seems to have been a political rather than a legal decision, and the next step in the legal process is to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. Now although an individual's right to citizenship is not directly guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights , the Court has already held that the arbitrary removal of an existing citizenship can be a violation of Convention Article 8.
For a measure removing citizenship not to be arbitrary , case law of the ECHR is that such removal should be in accordance with the law, which includes that law being accessible to the person concerned, and foreseeable in its effects; that it should be accompanied by the necessary procedural safeguards, including that the person deprived of citizenship is allowed to challenge the decision before a court affording the relevant guarantees; and that the authorities act diligently and swiftly.
The EU Treaties are clear about the conditions for acquiring EU Citizenship , but not about the conditions for losing it. Nor do they set out the legal grounds for an individual's EU Citizenship to be revoked without consent, and the procedural safeguards which would apply in such an event. If , as the Court of Justice of the EU has suggested in its judgement of 15 June 2023, the blame for all this lies solely with the UK authorities, there is nothing comparable in UK law either.
It is clear from current polling in the UK that a significant majority of voters now believe that the event which damaged and may even have destroyed the EU Citizenship of 67 million UK EU Citizens was a very grave mistake , and we are very grateful to our superb lawyers who have worked under great pressure to prepare the case for the ECHR. We have created a crowdfunder to deal with the legal costs and the administration associated with filing the case to establish the real legal position. Please donate if you are able to do so, and please also spread the word far and wide: EU Citizenship is a status which has helped maintain peace in Europe for many decades. It must therefore be cherished.