THE 2012 REPORT ON MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 27 June 2012

Municipal elections: the right to vote and to stand as a candidate All EU citizens (both national and non-national) enjoy equal electoral rights in the municipal elections in the Member State of residence. LEGAL BASIS Article 22(1) TFEU - “Every citizen of the Union residing in a Member State of which he is not a national shall have the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at municipal elections in the Member State in which he resides, under the same conditions as nationals of that State.” EU legislation: Council Directive 94/80/EC.

Municipal elections: the right to vote and to stand as a candidate Two important aspects of the legislation (1/2) 1) Member States adopt basically two different systems of registration in the electoral rolls: an automatic system of registration: non-national EU citizens are entered on the electoral rolls at the same time of their registration as resident (14 MS); a system of registration "on request", generally based on the need of applying within a peremptory time-limit (13 MS).

Municipal elections: the right to vote and to stand as a candidate Two important aspects of the legislation (2/2) 2) The Directive provides the possibility for the Member State to restrict a number of offices in the local administration to its own nationals, namely those related to the executive of the municipality (head, deputy or member of the governing college of the executive of a basic local government unit).

Commission Report on municipal elections On 9 March 2012 the Commission adopted its second report on the application and implementation of the Directive 94/80/EC. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/citizen/files/com_2012_99_municipal_elections_en.pdf

Commission Report on municipal elections MAIN STATISTICAL DATA The awareness of the electoral rights at local level is hight (EU average: 69%) Only 10% of resident non-national EU citizens asked to be entered on the electoral rolls General context: in 20 Member States the turnout in the last local elections held in the capitals was less than 65%

Commission Report on municipal elections Possible reasons of the general political disaffection: ‘democratic deficit’ (lack of confidence in public institutions) organisational factors (turnout increases if local and national elections are held in one day elections) logistical factors (absence of alternative voting procedures: postal voting)

Commission Report on municipal elections Low participation of non-national EU citizens Possible reasons > and solutions lack of information > sending individual letter with information on electoral procedure system of registration > automatic is preferable administrative burdens > remove the request of additional (non essential) data

Commission Report on municipal elections What are the challenges for the future: To increase the level of information in qualitative terms; To favorise the exchange of the best practices among the Member States; To involve more intensively the local authorities in all the initiatives aiming at enhancing the effective exercise of the electoral rights.

Thank you for your attention Contact: GIANCARLO DEFAZIO DG Justice Directorate for Fundamental rights and citizenship Unit C.2 - Union citizenship and free movement giancarlo.defazio@ec.europa.eu