Article 7 - Respect for private and family life
Article 24 - The rights of the child
Key facts of the case:
Reference for a preliminary ruling – Citizenship of the Union – Article 20 TFEU – Nationality of a Member State and of a third country – Acquisition of the nationality of a third country – Loss of the nationality of a Member State and of citizenship of the Union by operation of law – Possibility of applying to retain the nationality of the Member State prior to acquisition of the nationality of a third country – Individual examination of the consequences of the loss of the nationality of the Member State in the light of EU law – Scope
Outcome of the case:
On those grounds, the Court (Fourth Chamber) hereby rules:
Article 20 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding legislation of a Member State which provides that, in the event of voluntary acquisition of the nationality of a third country, the nationality of that Member State is lost by operation of law, which entails, for persons who are not nationals of another Member State, the loss of citizenship of the Union, unless those persons obtain permission from the competent national authorities to retain their nationality before acquiring the nationality of a third country, following an individual examination of the situation of those persons, which takes into account the weighing of the public and private interests concerned. However, compatibility with EU law is subject to the condition that, first, those persons have had effective access, within a reasonable period, to the procedure for retaining nationality provided for by that legislation, and have been duly informed of that procedure, and, secondly, that that procedure includes an examination by the competent authorities of the proportionality of the consequences of the loss of that nationality in the light of EU law. Otherwise, those authorities and any courts seised must be able to carry out such an examination, as an ancillary issue, in the event of an application by the persons concerned for a travel document or any other document certifying their nationality or, as the case may be, in proceedings for the establishment of loss of nationality, and those authorities and courts must be able, where appropriate, to reinstate that nationality ex tunc.
51. As part of that examination of proportionality, it is, in particular, for the competent national authorities and, where appropriate, for the national courts to ensure that the loss of nationality is consistent with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’), the observance of which the Court ensures, and specifically the right to respect for family life as stated in Article 7 of the Charter. That article must be read, where applicable, in conjunction with the obligation to take into consideration the child’s best interests, recognised in Article 24(2) of the Charter (judgments of 12 March 2019, Tjebbes and Others, C‑221/17, EU:C:2019:189, paragraph 45, and of 5 September 2023, Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet (Loss of Danish nationality), C‑689/21, EU:C:2023:626, paragraph 55).
