Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to report parliamentary committee draft

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Change 4

ChangedPursuant to Article 20(2)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), Article 22(2) TFEU and Article 39 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU), EU citizens residing in an EU Member State other than their own are entitled to vote and stand as candidates in European and municipal elections, under the same conditions as nationals. Detailed provisions on the political rights granted under EU citizenship are set out in Council Directive 93/109/EC regarding the participation of non-national Union citizens in European Parliament elections in their country of residence.

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RemovedThere is an estimated 13.3 million non-national Union citizens of voting age (post-Brexit data), which equals, when aggregated, the voting population of a medium-sized Member State. Nevertheless, voter turnout among non-national Union citizens remains low compared to nationals, despite the fact that all Member States have successfully transposed directive 93/109/EC. Similarly, the percentage of candidates standing for European elections made up of non-nationals is extremely limited (slightly over 1 % in the 2019 elections).

AddedNearly 13.7 million EU citizens – of whom about 11million are of voting age – reside in a Member State other than that of their nationality. Detailed provisions on the political rights granted under EU citizenship are set out in Council Directive 93/109/EC regarding the participation of non-national Union citizens in European Parliament elections in their country of residence.

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ChangedIt thus becomes clear that despiteDespite the arrangements under Directive 93/109/EC, non-national Union citizens still face manycertain obstacles in exercising their electoral rights in elections to the European Parliament. In particular,These forconcern the exerciseaccessibility of the right to vote, major obstaclesinformation, appearthe toregistration beprocesses, the difficulties in accessingeffects correctof andderegistration timelyin informationthe onMember howState toof voteorigin and standthe asexchange candidate,of complicatedinformation voterbetween registrationMember processes,States andwith the effectaim of deregistration from elections in the Member Statepreventing ofmultiple origin.voting.

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RemovedFor the exercise of the right to stand as a candidate, non-national and national EU citizens still face a great variety of electoral cultures, resulting in a vast range of different electoral systems that often make it impossible to register a party, association of voters or other electoral entities and to stand for elections. This is mainly due to either impedingly high judicial or financial thresholds or disproportionate signature requirements, which make it impossible especially for new political ideas to be represented on ballot lists for both EU and municipal elections.

AddedYour rapporteur thus welcomes the proposed revision of Directive 93/109/EC as provided in the Council draft of 16 September 2024. In his viewpoint, the amended proposal by the Council strikes the right balance between on the one hand mobile voters’ and candidates’ needs for timely information, equal treatment with nationals of Member States - including regarding possibilities of advance voting, postal voting, and electronic and internet voting available in a Member State - and the administrative burden on Member States’ national authorities on the other hand.

RemovedMoreover, there is a lack of public and comparable data. In several countries, registration rates for mobile EU voters are not published. Several Member States do not keep record of the amount of mobile EU citizens standing as a candidate in the elections to the European Parliament. Where data is kept and exchanged, the scope and format of the reporting obligations are inconsistent and vary between Member States, leading to incomparable results.

AddedHe is also of the opinion that the Council draft improves at the same time the exchange of necessary information between Members States in order to avoid multiple voting or instances where the same person would stand as a candidate more than once at the same elections, and introduces concrete reporting and data collecting and sharing obligations regarding the application of this Directive in the territory of the Member States thus permitting for the identification of measures necessary to ensure the effective exercise of Union citizens’ electoral rights.

RemovedThe amendments put forward by the Commission are limited and specific to the Council Directive and only marginally solve the difficulties faced by mobile EU citizens. While the new proposal is intended to update, clarify and strengthen the existing, outdated rules, it does so with limited effect as major issues, such as broadening the scope of the Directive as well as truly improving the accessibility to EU elections have not been addressed sufficiently.

AddedYour rapporteur would therefore propose that the Council draft be approved with no amendments.

RemovedMore ambitious steps have to be taken in order to a) truly ensure a broad and inclusive participation in the 2024 elections to the European Parliament, b) reduce inhibitive and undemocratic registration requirements both for voters and candidates, c) support mobile EU citizens in the exercise of their rights and d) protect the integrity of elections.

RemovedSpecifically, in order to make access to voting and standing as candidate in EP elections as easy as possible for non-national Union citizens, Member States should ensure that information on mobile citizens’ rights to vote or stand as candidates should be available in all Union languages and should reach marginalised groups, especially disabled people. Additionally, obstacles accessing voting booths and polling stations should be addressed, the possibility for postal, proxy, advance and electronic voting should be revisited. Minimum residence requirement for non-national Union citizens should be abolished, where still existent, and civil society organisations should play an important role in assisting the designated authorities in Member States to reach out to citizens through appropriate information campaigns, encouraging non-national Union citizens to proactively seek information about their voting and candidacy rights in European Parliament elections.

RemovedMoreover, recent developments in reforming the European elections should be taken into account in the recasting of this Directive. The new proposed rules can, if adopted and ratified by Member States, have a truly Europeanising effect that can change the way mobile EU citizens perceive EU democracy. Consequentially, the direction taken in this Directive should, as much as legally possible, reflect these developments.