EU Citizenship for Latvian 'Non-Citizens': A Concrete Proposal

Dimitry Kochenov 

University of Groningen - Faculty of Law

Aleksejs Dimitrovs 

European Parliament
November 7, 2013

Jean Monnet Working Papers (NYU Law School) No. 14/13, 2013 
Abstract:      

This contribution embraces a purely utilitarian view of European Union law in suggesting a viable way to enlarge the horizon of opportunities of the holders of the so called “non-citizen” status in the Republic of Latvia, which is reserved for some ethnic minorities in that country and does not amount to the possession of full Latvian citizenship. It is argued that the extension of EU citizenship to the holders of this status can be helpful in the context of an ethnically divided society. It is demonstrated that such an extension is legally feasible and is in line with the doctrine of continuity on which the statehood of the Latvian Republic rests, implying virtually no economic or political internal cost.
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Number of Pages in PDF File: 32

Keywords: Non-citizens, Latvia, EU citizenship, Russian minority, Ethnic minorities, EU law, discrimination, baltic states, nationalism, EU law, Latvian constitution, Latvian citizenship, state continuity, statelessness

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2351181