People and Social Groups in the European Union

This chapter surveys how researchers have studied the relationship between the EU and the people identified as its citizens. The passports held by the citizens of EU member-states carry the statement that they are ‘EU citizens’. This is a legal statement and has material consequences for the individual possessing such a document. Yet, does EU citizenship mean that there is a ‘people’ of the EU in the sense that we speak of the ‘French people’ or ‘German people’, with all the historical and cultural baggage those labels incur?