The transformation of citizenship: from national citizenship to European material citizenship

Abstract This article revitalises the debate on European citizenship by redefining its meaning within the EU and contributing to a broader understanding of constitutional transformation under conditions of post-national governance. Moving beyond the comparative method that evaluates European citizenship through the lens of national citizenship, it reorients the analytical focus to the interaction between national and European rights and introduces the concept of European Material Citizenship. This new form of citizenship reflects a normative shift in the regulation of social, political and economic relations within a constitutional order reshaped by European integration. While national citizenship synthesised the normative ideal constituting and regulating the relationship between the nation-state and individuals, European Material Citizenship synthesises the normative ideal governing a far more complex constitutional geometry – composed of European institutions, Member States and citizens.