Myth of 'European citizenship' exposed

Euro-MP Paul Nuttall

'European citizenship' has been exposed as a myth, says local MEP Paul Nuttall today.

The European Union has no right to claim that it has citizens, the Government has confirmed in a response to a written question.

"The EU has often claimed that it has created European citizenship, in its own right. But in answer to a question by independent Labour Peer Lord Stoddart of Swindon the Government has now confirmed that you cannot be a European citizen without first being a citizen of a nation state," said Mr Nuttall UKIP Euro-MP.

"I am delighted that this clarification exposes European citizenship as a myth and confirms that national citizenship has primacy, no matter what the bureaucrats in Brussels would like us to believe," he added.

"Brussels spends billions of pounds on propaganda trying to convince us to love the EU and be happy obedient little citizens. We are not citizens of the European Union and the sooner the UK leaves the better for us all," said Mr Nuttall.

Lord Henley, Minister of State at the Home Office, responding to Lord Stoddart's question, said, "Article 9 of the Treaty on the European Union states that 'every national of a member state shall be a citizen of the Union.

Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to national citizenship and shall not replace it'.

"The European Union therefore only derives its citizens from its constituent member states, and cannot claim to have citizens in its own right."