What EU citizenship actually gives you

An EU passport is the objective behind most European residence planning, and it is rarely described precisely. What it confers is substantial and specific.

The rights

• Free movement. The right to enter, live and work in any member state without a permit, subject to registration formalities and, after three months, conditions on being employed, self-employed, studying or self-sufficient.
• The right to work anywhere in the Union on equal terms with nationals, with professional qualifications recognised under a common framework.
• Your family comes with you — a non-EU spouse and children have derived rights that are stronger than any national immigration route would give them.
• Equal treatment in access to education, including domestic-rate university fees, which for a family with teenagers is frequently the largest financial item in the whole calculation.
• Consular protection from any member state's mission where your own has none.
• Political rights — voting in European and local elections where you live.

What it does not give

• Automatic residence rights beyond three months in another member state without meeting the conditions. Free movement is not unconditional settlement.
• Access to another member state's benefits system immediately on arrival.
• Anything outside the Union. Visa-free access to third countries depends on the specific passport and on those countries' policies.
• Relief from your other citizenship's obligations, including tax where a country taxes on citizenship.
• Schengen membership in every case. Ireland and Cyprus are EU members outside the Schengen area, which affects the practical experience of travel.

How it is actually obtained now

By descent, by naturalisation after genuine residence, or by marriage. The direct purchase route no longer exists anywhere in the Union following the ruling against Malta's programme. Residence programmes lead to it only through the naturalisation door, and that door requires years of real residence and a language.

The practical instruction

Before spending anything on a programme, exhaust the ancestry question. Ireland, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal and several others recognise descent on terms that reach further than most people assume, and the cost is archive research rather than capital. It is the single most underused route in this field.