The Puzzle of Citizenship and Territory in the EU: On European Rights Overseas

Aiming at outlining the essential framework of EU citizenship's specificity in the context of the Overseas Countries and Territories associated with the Union (OCTs), this paper approaches the development of the legal status of EU citizenship as a process of the redefinition of the territorial nature of EU law and analyzes the essential specific features of the functioning of EU citizenship enjoyed by those Member States' nationals who reside outside the territorial scope of EU law. Member States' nationals residing in the OCTs are fully fledged EU citizens. The legal specificity of the OCTs framed by the Treaties follows territorial logic, which means that Part II TFEU on EU citizenship fully applies in the OCTs via ratione personae of EU law, empowering all their inhabitants to benefit from applicable rights and freedoms granted to them by the Union which are not in conflict with Part IV TFEU and the logic of association described therein.