The organisation Voters without Borders launched a campaign on Tuesday 1 September to collect — in at least seven European countries — the 1,000,000 signatures needed for its European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) to be considered by the European Commission.
Voters without Borders, whose request to use an ECI was accepted last March, intends to ensure “full European integration in host countries”.
It has proposed to the European Commission that they revise the rights of European citizens to vote and stand for election in European and municipal elections.
The aim of the initiative is to enable the 14 million European citizens living in an EU country other than their own to be able to not only vote and stand in municipal and European elections in their host country — as permitted by European law — but also in regional or national elections or referendums, which is currently impossible.
“Although mobile European citizens pay their taxes in their country of residence, they are not full and equal members of society due to their partial political rights”, the organisation said. More than 50 organisations have already supported the initiative. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)