Brussels, 26/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission announced on Thursday 26 September that, following changes to Bulgarian law, it had closed the infringement procedure against Bulgaria for applying additional requirements to non-Bulgarian EU citizens wishing to vote or stand as a candidate in local or European elections.
These included, for example, having to provide the number and date of residence certificates. Since 2010, the Commission has identified similar obstacles to EU citizens' voting rights in their country of residence in ten other member states (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia). These have now been resolved, with the exceptions of three pending cases (with Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia). (SP/transl.fl)