ABSTRACT
Discussions on multiculturalism, national plurality and citizenship turn often towards European Union citizenship. This 'new' institution appeals simultaneously as a test and as a possible solution for some of the most compelling questions raised within other settings. And yet, EU citizenship offers more unresolved issues than answers to demands. Debates on the outstanding issue of defining the contours of plurinational states exemplify this situation. On the one hand, EU citizenship may be regarded as a possible device that provides a more diffuse institutional alternative for deriving rights and identity than the one provided by statehood (of member states). However, reality does not match expectations; in its current stage of development, the contribution of EU citizenship for the eventual settlement of issues of national plurality is mainly symbolic and, in practical terms, prospective rather than effective and current. This situation allows therefore a prospective standpoint in which normative arguments precede and enlighten institutional constructions.
