The Commission’s measures to strengthen the exercise of the right to vote in European elections for the more than 13 million citizens living in an EU country other than the one of which they are nationals “marginally solve the difficulties encountered by mobile citizens”, says Damian Boeselager (Greens/EFA, Germany) in his draft report dated 21 July.
According to the European Parliament’s rapporteur on this piece of legislation, which is part of the democracy package (see EUROPE 12840/4), “more ambitious steps are needed”. In particular, he says that Member States should ensure that information on voting and eligibility rights provided to mobile citizens is available in all EU languages as soon as they register in a Member State. This information also needs to reach marginalised groups, including people with disabilities, more effectively.
The European Parliament representative of the pan-European political movement Volt wants Member States to “allow” postal voting and to consider improving voter turnout through “ complementary tools such as advance in-person voting, proxy voting, electronic voting”, which should be available to mobile EU voters under “the same” conditions as those applicable to nationals.
Furthermore, Mr Boeselager advocates the repeal of derogations allowing a Member State to restrict the voting rights of mobile EU citizens over time, especially when their share exceeds 20% of the total voting age population. The same applies to the minimum residence requirements for non-national Union citizens.
Finally, civil society organisations should play an important role in assisting national authorities to raise awareness through appropriate information campaigns.
See the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/2v7 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)