Few EU expats to vote locally in June elections[fr][de] 

In Poland, only 313 foreigners have registered to vote in the EU elections in June, Polish national radio reported: a mere 3% of the 10,000 EU citizens who have taken up permanent residency in the country.

In Greece, the situation is slightly more positive. 6,505 citizens have registered, out of 140,000 identified in the last census in 2001, according to Interior Ministry figures.

Belgium, home to the European institutions, does not fare much better, as just 11.18% of EU citizens living there have registered to vote (66,203 out of 592,390), according to the country's electoral office.

The situation is similar in Sweden, whose electoral authority, Valmyndigheten, noted two weeks before the list's closing date that 219,000 foreign EU citizens of voting age reside in the country. But of these, only 37,000 had taken up their right to vote there.

Cyprus appears to be the exception, as 4,715 new European citizens (in addition to the 2,054 who were already on the 2004 EU electoral roll) have registered. "Despite the obstacles of bureaucracy and red tape, which hampered registration and legislation, many Euro supporters have hailed the figures as an impressive result," reported the Cyprus Mail.

Julia De Clerck-Sachsse, a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels, said she was not surprised by the low figures. "It does not shock me at all. It is a phenomenon that has been perceived for quite a while across Europe," she told EurActiv.

She also suggested that many expats, especially in countries like Belgium which are centrally located, are keen to come back in their home countries to cast their ballot. "People are quite mobile, they come back to their home sometimes even for the weekend," she said. "It certainly plays a role."

Turnout has been one of the main concerns regarding the upcoming European elections, with latest polls suggesting that participation could fall to an all-time low in the 4-7 June poll (EurActiv 15/04/09). 

Weak participation across Europe, but national differences persist

Even though Europeans have the right to participate in elections to the European Parliament in their country of residence (if different from their country of origin), their participation is generally weak. In the 1999 EU elections, only 1.8% of eligible non-national EU citizens cast their ballot in Greece and 2.1% in Denmark, according to Commission figures. Ireland did better, with 43.9%.

The EU executive believes that most citizens living abroad are aware of their voting rights, but are insufficiently informed on how to exercise them.

Indeed, the registration procedures for voting are different in each of the 27 member states, as they follow national electoral law. In Poland, Germany and France, foreigners have to submit a special form to the local city office in their place of residence. In Lithuania, the official voter registration form should be sent by post, and in the UK, registration must be done online. In other countries, permanent residency implies automatic eligibility to vote.

Registration dates  also differ from one country to another. Registration closes on 31 December preceding an electoral year in France, whereas Irish citizens and EU citizens living in Ireland can apply 15 working days before the polling day.

Moreover, the registration criteria also vary wildly: for example, an EU citizen who has lived in Bulgaria for less than three months is not eligible to vote there, while in the Czech Republic, other EU citizens must have resided in the country for at least 45 days before being granted the right to cast their ballot there. In Cyprus, a minimum of six months residency is required, while Luxembourg asks for two years.

Malta's case

Such disparities are not helping EU citizens. Indeed, in Malta, a comparison between electoral registers from 2004 and 2009 revealed last week that 966 out of the 1,050 non-Maltese EU citizens enrolled in 2004 are no longer registered, and will not be eligible to vote in Malta on June 6.

According to Joe Calleja, secretary of the country's electoral commission, all non-Maltese residents had until 31 March to register and those who failed to do so were removed automatically. The situation is markedly different for Maltese nationals who did not have to re-register for the June elections. Citizens were also confused because an advertising campaign failed to explain that the 1,050 non-Maltese EU residents who had already carried out the procedure in 2004 were expected to do so again to vote in 2009.

All those whose names were removed now have 20 days, starting from Monday 20 April, to apply for inclusion in the 2009 electoral register. The number of EU residents who have registered to vote so far is tiny, given that 19,000 currently reside in Malta.