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European Union law has developed a concept of Union citizenship based on a right of exit from one's country and a consequential right of entry in another Member State of the Union. 'Empowering' European citizens and enabling them to integrate into other Member States' territories is its main purpose. If we seek to analyse further the concept of Union citizenship, it is almost inevitable that we inquire into the social background of this construction, the individual skills and resources it entails, the state structures and collective goods it affects. This is the puzzle with which the most acute commentators engage. Looked at this way, Union citizenship is about integration of Union citizens into national communities, financial solidarity with other Member States' nationals and recognition of their personal identities. Ultimately it is about transnational integration and new forms of social justice within the Member States. There is, however, another way to engage with the concept. The focus on social integration is replaced by a somewhat more ambitious project: to empower the Union citizens to connect with Europe as a whole. This approach assumes that a proper regime of Union citizenship constitutes not only a right to free movement but a right to enjoy a common way of living. It would allow Union citizens to live, at least partially, in social and moral conditions which denote a far-reaching European society. If we take this project seriously, the problem, then, is as follows: how are we going to shape this project within a conceptual framework based on transnational integration? What does it mean practically to create ties between individuals who have been allowed to disaffiliate from their country of origin? To which 'whole' shall we refer that is not a structured state and yet does not boil down to a mere sphere of individual interests and particular social interactions? The essays presented here suggest two ways to approach this problem. The first explores the concept of 'the territory of the Union' enshrined in the EU legal discourse as a possible venue for this shift in understanding the project of European citizenship. The second approach tells the story of an individual who feels strongly about being a 'European' with the right to be recognized everywhere in Europe without being part of any definite community. The first paper is an academic article which was commissioned by Dimitry Kochenov for a forthcoming edited volume on EU Citizenship and Federalism: The Role of Rights (CUP, 2015). The second is more of a narrative or a tale and is written in French. The first essay builds upon the second. The reason for bringing them together is to show that the literary form may contribute to an understanding of complex legal issues simply by showing a state of legal affairs in its most stylised form.

A powerful narrative exists in European Union Law that argues that the Union and its main legal actor, the European Court of Justice, have placed the individual at the centre of the European project. The creation of the European individual (worker/consumer/producer/employer.) is largely the result of a legal technique which consists in granting individuals with subjective rights opposable to the Member States. EU legislation and jurisprudence are replete with such rights. In the past two decades, the language of market rights has developed in the grammar and semantic of citizenship rights. This paper is an attempt to address some of the shortcomings of this construction by relying on the concept of status. A concept of status has recently emerged in the case law of the European Court of Justice. The paper argues that, beyond its purely rhetorical value, the concept may be constructed in normative terms so as to offer a new conceptualization of individual autonomy at the EU level. A conception that preserves the emancipatory character of EU law but is more sensitive to the protection of affected interests. ; La langue du droit de l'Union -- La souveraineté transnationale du sujet du droit de l'Union -- Le concept de personne et la transformation du cadre de l'autonomie -- L'idée de statut et le souci du concret -- L'émergence d'un «droit transitionnel» -- «Je veux, donc j'ai des droits»

This paper addresses the problem of the integration of EU law into the national legal systems. By what title can EU law impose its norms on domestic legal orders, and so much so that the conditions in which the rule-making process is organized within the Member States are considerably affected? On what conditions can EU law be integrated? What consequences does such normative integration entail? The legal dynamics of integration produces different discourses of justification that can be defined within a general grammar of relations between legal orders. The purpose of the paper is to describe these discourses and their respective relevance in the actual course of integration.

Defence date: 21 December 2000 ; Examining board: Prof. Joël Rideau, Directeur de thèse/extérieur, Université de Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, Membre de l'Institut Universitaire de France ; Prof. Renaud Dehousse, Directeur de thèse IUE, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris ; Prof. Mario Chiti, Université de Florence ; Prof. Fabrice Picod, Université Panthéon-Assas de Florence ; Prof. Jacques Ziller, Institut Universitaire Européen de Florence