Reform of Citizenship Directive: EU's Obligations and LGBT Rights

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International Relations
Citizenship Directive (Reform of)

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Artefact 1
Title: Citizenship Directive
Commission Portfolio: Education, Culture, Youth and Sports
Commissioner: Tibor Navracsics
Background: European Commission portfolio is referred to the area of responsibility which
is assigned to a European Commissioner, and usually, this responsibility is connected to one
or several Directorates-General (DGs). The portfolio of Tibor Navracsics is responsible for
providing policies in the field of education and training, civil society, transplant, sports,
youth, interpretation, and relations between the offices of the official publication of the
European Communities (Europa, 2014).
Rationale:
(1) Article 45 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights recognises the right of citizens to
move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States (Lewik, n.d.).
(2) This freedom is granted in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty establishing
the European Community.
(3) The Union also focuses on addressing discrimination issues relating to sex, race,
religion, ethnic, gender or age.
(4) It is also recognised that all union citizens have the right to receive equal treatment
within the Member States (Directives 2004/38/EC).
An obligation is imposed on the Member States to ensure that they protected the
human rights of citizens and upheld them to ensure that all citizens must receive equal
treatment in the Member States. Article 52 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights provides
that any limitation which is imposed by the law in respect of prohibiting the rights and
freedom citizens which result in failing to comply with the EU legislation will be considered
as void (Europa, n.d.). The right of citizens in the European Economic Area (EEA) in order to
move freely is recognised pursuant to Citizenship Directives 2004/38/EC. The provisions
regarding rights of unmarried couples which are citizen of EEA to move freely in the EEA are
also given under the Citizenship Directives 2004/38/EC (Guild, Peers & Tomkin, 2014). The
free movement right of a person is referred as Directives 2004/38/EC of the fundamental
freedoms which are available for citizens in the internal market. Moreover, prohibitions are
imposed on discrimination while providing employment based on the Employment Equality
Framework Directive to prohibit discrimination at the place of employment.
Although these policies recognise the rights of all citizens freedom; however, the
Member States have failed to protect the rights of LGBT community in the EU, especially
when it comes to recognition of family rights of same-sex marriages. The LGBT rights are
protected under EU treaties and law; however, only 12 out of 28 EU states has legalised it.
These policies contradict with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of individuals since
discrimination is faced by members of the LGBT community because they did not enjoy the
right of freedom to freely move and reside after their marriage (Europarl, 2016). The key
reason for this problem is that all Member States have not recognised the LGBT rights and
same-sex marriage rights which create contradictions with the fundamental rights of
citizens.