Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 25 April 2024 (requests for a preliminary ruling from the Verwaltungsgericht Düsseldorf - Germany) – S.Ö. (C-684/22), N.Ö., M.Ö. (C-685/22), M.S., S.S. (C-686/22) v Stadt Duisburg (C-684/22), Stadt Wuppertal (C-685/22) and Stadt Krefeld (C-686/22)

(Joined Cases C-684/22 to C 686/22,  (1) Stadt Duisburg (Loss of German nationality)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Citizenship of the Union - Article 20 TFEU - Nationality of a Member State and of a third country - Acquisition of the nationality of a third country - Loss of the nationality of a Member State and of citizenship of the Union by operation of law - Possibility of applying to retain the nationality of the Member State prior to acquisition of the nationality of a third country - Individual examination of the consequences of the loss of the nationality of the Member State in the light of EU law - Scope)

(C/2024/3572)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Verwaltungsgericht Düsseldorf

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: S.Ö. (C-684/22), N.Ö., M.Ö. (C-685/22), M.S., S.S. (C-686/22)

Defendants: Stadt Duisburg (C 684/22), Stadt Wuppertal (C-685/22), Stadt Krefeld (C-686/22)

Operative part of the judgment

Article 20 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding legislation of a Member State which provides that, in the event of voluntary acquisition of the nationality of a third country, the nationality of that Member State is lost by operation of law, which entails, for persons who are not nationals of another Member State, the loss of citizenship of the Union, unless those persons obtain permission from the competent national authorities to retain their nationality before acquiring the nationality of a third country, following an individual examination of the situation of those persons, which takes into account the weighing of the public and private interests concerned. However, compatibility with EU law is subject to the condition that, first, those persons have had effective access, within a reasonable period, to the procedure for retaining nationality provided for by that legislation, and have been duly informed of that procedure, and, secondly, that that procedure includes an examination by the competent authorities of the proportionality of the consequences of the loss of that nationality in the light of EU law. Otherwise, those authorities and any courts seised must be able to carry out such an examination, as an ancillary issue, in the event of an application by the persons concerned for a travel document or any other document certifying their nationality or, as the case may be, in proceedings for the establishment of loss of nationality, and those authorities and courts must be able, where appropriate, to reinstate that nationality ex tunc.

(1)   OJ C 24, 23.1.2023.