The Court, the Legislature and the Co-Construction of a Status of Social Integration

25 years after its introduction, Union citizenship has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for dynamism. As a legal institution its history has been marked by an almost constant development prompted first by the Court and later developed by the legislature. Originally considered a mere cipher,¹ Union citizenship constituted the vehicle by which rights previously the preserve of the economically active were extended to the non-economically active. In this way a novel transnational membership status has been progressively developed. As noted by the Kostakopoulou, its development is best understood as a constructive process, with Union citizenship evolving through the contributions of different