Voting Rights for Non-Belgian EU Nationals in Regional Elections

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Voting Rights for Non-Belgian EU Nationals in
Regional Elections

• François Tulkens
• Lecturer at FUSL
• Lawyer (Avocat/ NautaDutilh)

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Overview

• I. The Belgian situation
• II. Exercise of the right to vote and stand as a
  candidate in municipal elections
• III. Legal possibilities to extend the right to
  vote to regional elections
• IV. Related questions

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I. The Belgian situation

• Article 8 of the Belgian Constitution only
  Belgian citizens can vote in all elections.
• Treaty of Maastricht(1992) establishment of
  European citizenship. Right to vote and stand as
  candidates in municipal elections (current Art.20
  TFUE).
• Directive 94/80 implementing the Treaty list in
  annex of basic local government unit in each
  Member State (Belgium, France, the Netherlands
  commune/gemeente inclusion of cities but only in
  part, e.g. counties or London boroughs in the UK
  Bezirk in der Freien und Hansestadt und im Land
  Berlin).

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I. The Belgian situation

• Revision of Article 8 of the Constitution in
  1995, to transpose Directive 94/80 into national
  law (in accordance with the international and
  supranational obligations of Belgium)
• Another revision in 1998 to grant non-EU
  nationals the right to vote in local elections.
  No effect before 2001.
• In practice
• 2000 Belgian municipal elections opened to other
  EU (but not non-EU) nationals - right to vote and
  stand for the municipal council
• 2006 Belgian municipal elections opened to EU and
  non-EU nationals right to vote and stand for the
  municipal executive body (college du bourgmestre
  et des echevins) but no possibility to be elected
  or appointed mayor (bourgmestre)
• next municipal elections to be held in 2012.

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I. The Belgian situation

• Formalities
• Submission of a written request to the
  municipality to be registered as a voter
• No mandatory residence period
• If registered as a voter, exercise of the right
  to vote is compulsory.

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II. Exercise of voting rights by non-Belgian EU
nationals

• Figures for 2006
• Non-Belgian EU nationals /-170,000 in Brussels
  
• 18,682 non-Belgian EU nationals registered to
  vote in the 19 municipalities (compared to 6,622
  non-EU voters and 566,718 Belgian voters) in
  certain municipalities, 10 to 22 of the
  registered voters were non-Belgian EU nationals.
• 156 candidates, ranging from 1 (Berchem) to 26
  (Ixelles) per municipality

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III. Legal possibilities to extend the right to
vote to regional elections

• A. At the European level (without the revision of
  the Belgian constitution, by creating new
  international or supranational obligations)
• Art. 25(2) TFUE the Council, acting unanimously
  and with the consent of the EP, can strengthen or
  add to the rights of citizenship (with the
  approval of the Member States).
• Amend the annex to Directive 94/80 to indicate a
  new Belgian basic government unit, namely the
  region.
• Problems Distortion of the basic local
  government unit? Reaction of other Member
  States? Exception for Brussels? Internal
  difficulties due to the potential contradiction
  between a full-fledged region in Belgium but a
  basic local government unit at the European
  level.
• Amend the European treaties

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III. Extension of voting rights

• B. Constitutional route
• Amend Article 8 of the Constitution to extend
  the right to vote of non-Belgian EU nationals to
  regional elections
• MR has submitted a resolution to this end to the
  Brussels Parliament given that
• The population of non-Belgian EU nationals is
  growing (almost 200,000)
• This population is not represented at all at the
  regional level in Belgium
• Brussels is the capital of Europe.
• The federal government has been asked to address
  this issue.

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IV. Related questions

• Should this issue remain a federal matter (with
  the advantage ofuniformity) or allocated to the
  Regions (allowing different choices from region
  to region)?
• Should the exercise of voting rights still be
  compulsory?
• Which language(s) should non-Belgian elected
  officials use when performing their official
  duties?
• Is there discrimination against non-EU nationals?
• Etc.
• These political and civic questions will require
  non-legal answers.