The status of a citizen of the Union and its potential impact on the scope of Community Law (STJUE Ruiz Zambrano)

Abstract

The Judgment of the Court of Justice of March 8th, 2011 (C-34/09) case Ruiz Zambrano against l'Office National de l'Emploi (ONEM) of Belgium highlights an issue, already debated by the jurisprudence and the doctrine, concerning the right of residence of nationals of a third country who are the parents of a children national of a Member State. The approach taken in this case by the ECJ is novel in part due to the own approach to the questions and especially by the arguments around the status of citizen of the EU and the notion of citizenship itself. The key issue of the suit seeks to ascertain the impact of the European Union nationality of some underage children, who have not exercised their right of free movement, on the residency status (irregular) of the parents who are nationals of a third country. If until now the premise that "it would be necessary to cross the border" to be covered by Community law was true, the sentence Ruiz Zambrano comes to question this premise to cover a “purely domestic” situation under the protective umbrella of the citizenship status and therefore extending the scope of application of Community law. This Judgment implies a review of one of the favorite topics for scholars -the notion of citizenship- to, from a different perspective, think about the impact of the status of citizen of the Union in the scope of application of Community law.