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This paper provides a critical account of a recent line of Court of Justice’s cases concerning European citizenship rights. It focuses on an innovative jurisdictional test introduced by the Court in the Zambrano case (Case C-34/09). This innovative test enables to bring cases within the scope of EU law,even when a cross-border element is missing. In fact, the new formula states that securing the genuine enjoyment of the substance of rights attaching to the European citizen status is a sufficient condition to consider a case as falling within the scope of EU law. However, the formula is elliptic since the Court does not explain which are the rights that shall be considered part of the substance of EU citizenship, neither the formula describes under which conditions their enjoyment is genuine. The scope of this paper is clarifying the role played by fundamental rights and by free movement rights in setting the limits of applicability of the new jurisdictional test.

This paper provides a critical account of a recent line of Court of Justice’s cases concerning European citizenship rights. It focuses on an innovative jurisdictional test introduced by the Court in the Zambrano case (Case C-34/09). This innovative test enables to bring cases within the scope of EU law,even when a cross-border element is missing. In fact, the new formula states that securing the genuine enjoyment of the substance of rights attaching to the European citizen status is a sufficient condition to consider a case as falling within the scope of EU law. However, the formula is elliptic since the Court does not explain which are the rights that shall be considered part of the substance of EU citizenship, neither the formula describes under which conditions their enjoyment is genuine. The scope of this paper is clarifying the role played by fundamental rights and by free movement rights in setting the limits of applicability of the new jurisdictional test.

This paper provides a critical account of a recent line of Court of Justice’s cases concerning European citizenship rights. It focuses on an innovative jurisdictional test introduced by the Court in the Zambrano case (Case C-34/09). This innovative test enables to bring cases within the scope of EU law,even when a cross-border element is missing. In fact, the new formula states that securing the genuine enjoyment of the substance of rights attaching to the European citizen status is a sufficient condition to consider a case as falling within the scope of EU law. However, the formula is elliptic since the Court does not explain which are the rights that shall be considered part of the substance of EU citizenship, neither the formula describes under which conditions their enjoyment is genuine. The scope of this paper is clarifying the role played by fundamental rights and by free movement rights in setting the limits of applicability of the new jurisdictional test.