After 1991, as Yugoslavia began to disintegrate, new states emerged alongside each other, each with their own citizenship regimes determining who was a ‘citizen’ and therefore had the privileges of citizenship (residence rights, welfare rights, property rights, political rights, etc.). CITSEE examines these regimes against the background of Europeanisation, focusing in particular on the enlargement and related policies of the European Union, but also other the impact of other international regimes such as the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and other aspects of the work of the Council of Europe, such as the Venice Commission.

Most studies of citizenship in the former Yugoslavia date from the 1990s, and are descriptive in character. CITSEE will provide the first fully comparative and contextualised study, drawing its methods from the disciplines of law and political science.

CITSEE’s researchers are not attempting to supply answers as to ‘best’ or ‘worst’ practices in relation to citizenship regimes, or to evaluate the impact of Europeanisation as negative or positive. But such an evaluative study is intended to be of interest not only to researchers, but also to non-governmental organisations and to policy-makers in the region, in the EU institutions, and in other international institutions. It fills in many gaps in our current knowledge and it will provide an enhanced evidence basis for policy development in the future.

CITSEE involves a large multi-national and multi-disciplinary group of researchers based at the University of Edinburgh, led by Jo Shaw  (Salvesen Chair of European Institutions) and Igor Štiks  (Postdoctoral Fellow). CITSEE is supported by an Advisory Board comprising distinguished scholars working on central, eastern and southeastern Europe.

CITSEE’s main activities include:

• Events, in Edinburgh and elsewhere, including visiting speakers, conferences and workshops (CITSEE Dialogues)
• Fellowship and outreach programmes
• Publications including monographs, edited volumes, journal articles and a Working Paper series
• Dissemination of our research results in an innovative way in the region and elsewhere in Europe
• User-friendly webpages that will reach beyond academic community towards wider audiences including regularly updated blogs, links, news and galleries

Source: The University of Edinburg, School of Law