Abstract
This study starts from the roots of the European legal framework of active inclusion to highlight how the transition to a knowledge society pushes to restructure the process of European integration towards a logic of network. It shows that the network logic requires the inclusion of all citizens and requires their active participation to meet the functional needs of employment and social competitiveness. It also sets out the criteria set by the CJEU to distinguish economically active citizens from those who are not. The existence of an economic activity is not in fact the only element of judicial assessment. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) also looks at the degree of integration of the citizen within the host State and the intention of the citizen to be active within this State. These criteria are analyzed under the prism of the continuity and duration of the stay, the probability of seeing the citizen exercising a job in the host territory, the parenthood of the status of active migrant, but also the voluntary loss or involuntary employment and active availability of the citizen to find a new job. This study is based in particular on works in the philosophy of law and on the European institutional production of soft law. This raises the need for progress in terms of political and legal transparency so as to give European citizens real enjoyment of the rights conferred on them by Union law.