European citizenship is conceived as a relational concept. It is dynamic rather than static. To identify the meaning of European Union citizenship research focuses on the practices of politics and policy-making leading to the stipulation of Union citizenship in the Maastricht Treaty. Given that this meaning is negotiated and contested at distinct sites and over time, studying these practices reveals the emerging meanings-in-use of citizenship which are specific to the European context. This chapter introduces and discusses the concept of ‘citizenship practice’ with reference to the citizenship literature, focussing on the distinction between constitutive and historical elements of citizenship. It then recalls the policy making process and its impact on building institutions of the European non-state over three decades, marked by European citizenship practice around the two policy packages of ‘special rights policy’ and ‘passport policy’ since the early 1970s.