Question re voting rights

peasant

Hi Caroline and John

As you are probably aware, this whole borderless EU thing is really working
There is a fairly large amount of EU citizens living and working in an EU country in which they weren't born or aren't citizens of.

Me, I'm one of them and I have been living, working (and paying my taxes!) here for 12 years now. One thing that has always bugged me is that I am not allowed to vote in the country of my choice, other than in local or EU elections.
Yet I can vote in the country that I left so long ago. Now I understand that all of this has to do with citizenship and that if I really wanted to vote that badly I could always apply to become an Irish citizen and sort it this way.

Yet I am a great believer in pragmatism and unbureaucratic solutions ...so my question is:

Are there any stirrings in EU policy to introduce national voting rights for EU citizens in other EU jurisdictions? Say after a period of having been resident there for 5 or 10 years?

TalkToEU: John

Hi peasant.

Thanks for your question.
It's an interesting one, but unfortunately it falls out of the competency of the EU and therefore the EU would be unable to legislate any laws that would change the voting rights in this area.

It's also an area in which member states would most likely be keen to keep under national law and control. Gathering support among member states for any changes in this area would also likely prove to be very difficult.

We are not aware of any stirrings at EU level to raise this as an issue or to even discuss it, but we'll continue to look into it and let you know if we come across anything.

Many thanks.

John

Alun

This is something that has always interested me too. I'm a UK citizen, and fortunately because of the reciprocal voting agreement between the UK and Ireland I can vote in general elections here.

Prior to moving here, though, I had been resident outside of the UK (Germany and Netherlands) for more than the cut-off period of 15 years, so was effectively without a vote anywhere.

Anyway, I wonder, is this 15 year cut-off a UK-only thing, and if so could it be considered contrary to any EU regulations, since it renders an EU citizen resident in another EU state effectively without any real voting power anywhere?

TalkToEU: John

Hi Alun,

The current legislation on voting rights for EU citizens resident in other EU member states currently only applies to European Parliament, and local/municipal elections. As mentioned above, the EU has no competency in the area of national elections and eligibility in these elections is subject to national law.

It's an interesting question though and a familiar one for Irish ex-pats who feel disenfranchised since Ireland doesn't not allow postal voting or voting from embassies, which leaves many Irish ex-pats within the EU without a right to vote in national election in their home country, nor their EU resident country.


For the present though EU legislation on voting only applies to the following:
European Parliament elections
Municipal/Local elections