Access to citizenship rights and status is among the most important conditions for the integration of foreigners in general and especially of third country nationals (TCNs). In the case of the European Union, Member States should therefore provide fair conditions for the acquisition of nationality through naturalisation or birth in the territory. Through the common citizenship of the EU, the citizenship policies of Member State (MS) and Neighbouring Countries (NC) (e.g. Switzerland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, Norway) mutually affect each other and create common interests in best practices and policy coordination. The project will establish a specialized comparative European observatory on citizenship laws and policies in the 27 MS of the EU and neighbouring countries, which will be nested within a major new web platform European Democracy Observatory (EUDO) at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS, at the European University Institute, EUI) as well as within the EUROPA institute site at Edinburgh University. EUCITAC will provide a unique and comprehensive information resource on citizenship in Europe for governments, researchers, migrant organisations and NGOs. It will identify major trends and problems in citizenship policies as a basis for informed policies and community action. The project is supported in Florence (the main locus) by EUDO, a 'European Democracy Observatory' at the EUI, and by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) at large. In Edinburgh, EUCITAC will be supported by the Europa Institute and the Migration and Citizenship Research Group of the University of Edinburgh. In addition to the co-directors, all other partners will be represented by one person in a project management committee. The Swiss partner to the Consortium covering Switzerland is the SFM, the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies, an Institute of the University of Neuchâtel.
