Economic integration and EU citizenship

Abstract

The paper explores what versions of integration and EU citizenship take shape in the space between free movement as a fundamental right and free movement as a conditional right. I will try to show that one enduring form of integration is what I will call ‘economic integration’ and its strenuous relationship with equal treatment. The jurisprudence concerning EU citizens claiming social rights questions whether integration achieved via residence alone has the same integrative force as work when it comes to claiming welfare rights. The paper argues that while integration requirements are formally missing from the governance of EU citizens’ mobility, integration as a notion informs such mobility and its practice.