It is true that expats living in another EU Member
State from their country of origin have
the right to vote in local (municipal)
elections and in European Parliament elections in
their host country. This right originated in the Maastricht treaty of 1992:
“The
Treaty of Maastricht established the Citizenship of the Union in 1992. The foremost
purpose of the institutionalization of this new legal status was to strengthen and enhance
European identity and to enable European citizens to participate more intensively in the
Community integration process.
The right of European citizenship is extended to every
person who is a national of an EU
Member State. European citizenship does not
substitute, but rather supplements, the
citizenship of each State.
Those holding European citizenship are entitled to
some fundamental rights within the EU,
regardless of which State they are
citizens. Electoral rights are part of these fundamental
rights – every citizen
currently has the right to vote and stand as candidate in European
and
municipal elections in whichever member state they reside in.”
However, the Maastricht provisions do not justify
Member States’ withholding the right to
vote in national elections from their
own citizens on grounds of residency.
In general, countries do not
grant the right to vote in national elections to foreign residents.
Citizenship or nationality, not residency, is by far
the most usual criterion used by
governments to decide who has the right to
vote in national elections.
