EMN inform: ‘Statelessness in the European Union, Norway, Georgia, and Serbia’

How do EU Member States and EMN Observer Countries address statelessness? What policies do countries have in place to reduce and prevent statelessness? This EMN study maps the policies and practices and forms part of the EMN Platform on Statelessness’ recurring publication series.

Study period – Up to and including 31 October 2025
Participating EU Member States – Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Cyprus (CY), Czechia (CZ), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), Finland (FI), France (FR), Croatia (HR), Hungary (HU), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Latvia (LV), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Sweden (SE), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK)
Participating EMN Observer Countries – Norway (NO); Georgia (GE), Serbia (RS)

Background and scope

• A stateless person is someone who is not considered a national by any state under the operation of its law. This legal status limits access to, among other things, healthcare, education and employment, increasing the risk of marginalisation and discrimination.
• According to the report ‘Mid-Year Trends 2025’ according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an estimated 4.4 million people worldwide are stateless.
• Statelessness is also a significant issue within the European Union (EU). At the end of 2024, UNHCR estimated that around 340,000 people in the EU were either stateless or of undetermined nationality.
• At the same time, it emerges (see EMN inform ‘Measuring progress to address statelessness in the EU and Georgia’, 2021) that the absence of a harmonised method for registering stateless persons makes it difficult to determine accurately the number of stateless people in the EU. Member States base their figures on different registration systems and data sources.
• To facilitate knowledge sharing on this issue, the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council tasked the EMN in 2015 with establishing an EMN Platform on Statelessness. The platform enables countries to share knowledge and exchange information on statelessness. Since then, the EMN has published regular overview reports on the topic. This study builds on the previous publications produced in 2016, 2020 and 2023.
• It provides new and updated information on statelessness in EU Member States and EMN Observer Countries, and presents an overview of recent developments and policies on statelessness up to and including 31 October 2025.

Publication EMN

• EMN inform, ‘Statelessness in the European Union, Norway, Georgia, and Serbia’, mei 2026

Publication EMN Netherlands

• Expected in September 2026: two-pager of EMN Netherlands comparing the Dutch policy with the policies of other European countries