How did the Maastricht Treaty create European Union citizenship?

The Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union in 1993, created EU citizenship by automatically granting it to every person who held the nationality of an EU member state.12

This status provided citizens with specific political rights that transcended their national borders. Most notably, it enabled individuals to vote and run for office in both local and European Parliament elections within the EU country where they resided, regardless of their original nationality. By decoupling these voting rights from national citizenship, the treaty fostered a sense of shared political participation across the union.12