European Union citizenship and its impacts on the formation of european political identity

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: NEVAL KOLSUZ

Danışman: AHMET NURİ YURDUSEV

Özet:

This thesis aims at evaluating the impacts of European Union Citizenship on the development process of European political identity. With the introduction of European Union citizenship upon the ratification of the Treaty of Maastricht, a breath of fresh air has been brought to the ongoing debates and a new form of citizenship has taken its place in the literature. The “workers’ right to free movement ” which was the core of the push for European citizenship, has played a pioneering role for the rights engendered thereunder. In due course, new rights have been entitled to the citizens and the scope of these rights has been broadened. From the 1950s to the present, EU citizenship has continued its evolution and, rather than being referred to as a common market citizenship, it became a highly political concept during this period. In the context of these developments, this thesis view the historical background and the legal framework of the concept and, in light of these insights, analyze the impacts of European Union citizenship upon the formation of European political identity. In this study, European citizenship has been defined as a form of political identity, whose emergence , in turn , was a consequence of citizens’ relationships with the political entity-European Union- . On account of the inadequacy of the elements that constitutes the identity under normal conditions , the existence of the political identity has been emphasized as a the key concept in order to attach the citizens to the political entity and the role of the citizenship has been stated as comprising a common basis within the EU in order to constitute a political identity.