hey there guys I thought with the EU referendum coming up in a few weeks
I do a video on article 20 of the TFEU which is citizenship of the European
Union
now this doesn't really get mentioned very much in exams or in EU law courses
but i do think it's important and later on in the video I'll be talking about
how you can use it as an addition to some of the other subjects that you will
cover on your syllabus. I don't think it gets talked about for a couple of
reasons first of all it's really quite simple
only comes down to four key features in Article 20 and secondly i don't think
that people generally think about citizenship of the European Union
if for example someone was to ask me where are you a citizen of?
I would probably say England or Great Britain I wouldn't really think of
myself as an EU citizen but that does have a range of rights and obligations
that go with it which are really important that we often
forget about
so let's go through the four key features that i mentioned in article 20
and the first of those is the right to petition now
about a week ago someone got in touch on one of my other videos and asked me
is this particular regulation still in force is still rule and what would I
have to do to make sure it got repealed
now i replied to the person said well actually you can contact the Commission
the European Commission talk to them and they will respond to you and actually
they have an obligation to respond to you because you are a citizen of the EU
under Article 20
so it's a really interesting right one that we don't think about very much and
that's part of it another part is relating to diplomacy so
summer's coming up a lot of people are going on holiday and and if you went to
America for example and got in trouble with the police
normally if you were like a UK citizen like me you contact the British Embassy
but because of article 20 and because i am a citizen of the EU
I'd actually be able to get in touch with any of the embassies relating to
the 28 member states
so I'd be able to go to the Portuguese embassy to the Irish Embassy
and and they would have an obligation to help me in the same way that the British
Embassy would so again a really important right and one that's useful to
remember even outside of the legal context. The third right relates to
voting so we vote every few years for members of the European Parliament and
we're allowed to do that because we are citizens of the european union under
article 20 also people often forget about this but it also includes the
right to stand as a candidate for the European Parliament as well
so one of the best ways to get things changed if you don't like the way things
are going in in Europe is to stand as a candidate for the european parliament
and actually be there in Brussels and get things done yourself now finally in
relation to the article 20 the most important right that's established with
citizenship with the European Union is the right to freedom of movement and
this is really important
it links to one of my other videos which I did an article 45 which is free
movement of workers but article 20 is a bit more generic there are limitations
on it that you can sort of look into more detail but the general principle
still stands that people do have the right
freedom of movement so that's article 20 if we were using it in an exam or a
course what context it often doesn't come up on its own but as I've already
mentioned if you're answering a question on the free movement of workers under
article 45 a good way to start that answer might be to mention article 20
and to say that citizenship with the European Union is really important and
that that article 20 provides almost like a a bedrock for establishing
further write such as those in article 45 those two a very closely linked
together we can also think about things like and political questions that
sometimes come up in exams like the Democratic deficit within the European
Union and now when you're answering that question you will obviously talk about
things like voting in elections and the commission
and things like that but mentioning article 20 is a really good way of
getting the legal basis for citizenship in there
and mentioning some of the rights and obligations that go along with
citizenship of the European Union
finally you may also want to mention it when discussing and the institutions in
particular as i mentioned the Commission has a an obligation to respond to
petitions from citizens of the European Union and so it links quite well with
that as well and thank you very much for watching this short video and if you
liked it then leave a thumbs up below any questions or comments then leave
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thanks again for watching bye