Marco Zoppi Shrinking Futures Ahead? Debating Citizenship, Social Rights and Solidarity in the EU Asking questions related to the destiny of the EU in the coming years implies an exercise of ordering, or at least an attempt at doing so, among the many expectations that are trying to shape tomorrow’s Europe in one way or the other. A multitude of actors, in fact, compete for projecting their aspirations on the various facets of the EU with the aim of moulding the future path in those manners that would best match their interest; and yet much disappointment is also to be recorded in this process, as oftentimes predictions are not coupled with the forecasted fulfilments: we are rather familiar, for example, with tensions arising between member states or between a member state and EU institutions themselves. With the purpose of navigating through EU’s troubled waters, I propose to focus here on the development of the concept of ‘social citizenship’ in the EU framework, intended first as a means to assess its significance and relation with the overall EU project; and then more specifically as a sign to predict possible future trajectories: I affirm, in fact, that an analysis of this kind can reveal ‘citizenship’ to be one of the most promising and at the same time contested ideals in the internal dynamics of the EU, as much in the present as for the times to come. Why –it may be asked, is ‘(social) citizenship’ particularly relevant for a treatise on the current and future determination of the EU’s power position in the world? Beyond the obvious answer that what we are talking about is a Europe of citizens, I believe that citizenship, especially in its social declination, contains a futurity oriented component: this component resides in the goal that citizenship rights have for themselves to assure citizen’s welfare and social security. In