Dealing with Loopholes in National and EU Citizenship: Spanish Nationality in the Case of Western Sahara

Abstract

This chapter explores the potentially fuzzy boundaries of the concept of European citizenship, and its deep interconnection with the nationality legislations of the European Union (EU) Member States. The complexity and plurality of these national regulations involves an extremely wide range of procedures, mecha- nisms and conditions for obtaining derivatively the status of EU citizen. Embedded within this plurality, several inequalities between legislations (and some loopholes) also appear to exist, making EU citizenship a potentially incon- sistent concept, particularly at the outer limits of national belonging. In order to illustrate this issue, which affects the very notion of EU citizenship, we shall review the issue of the loose boundaries of Spanish nationality law, focusing spe- cifically on the status of its regulatory framework regarding Western Sahara. This former Spanish colony, whose political status over the last four decades, following the termination of Spanish control over the territory, has undergone an incom- plete and conflictive process of redefinition.