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Stronger Rights for EU Mobile Citizens in European Parliament Elections

03 September 2025

New EU rules will break down barriers and make voting easier for “EU mobile citizens” — EU nationals who live outside their country of origin— to vote and stand as candidates in the European Parliament elections by having information translated into other EU languages, designating a responsible dedicated authority, and collecting more precise data on the level of participation

On 5 June 2025, the Council of the European Union made amendments to Directive 93/109/EC[1], strengthening the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament for citizens of the Union residing in a Member State of which they are not nationals[2].

The right for EU mobile citizens to vote and stand as candidates in their host Member State is also enshrined in Article 39 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights[3], and in Article 22 of the TFEU[4]. In practical terms, this means that EU citizens who have settled in another EU country (the so-called “EU mobile citizens”) can choose whether to cast their ballots for the European Parliament elections in their Member State of origin or in the Member State where they reside.

The amendments to Directive 93/109/EC aim at fostering the political participation of EU mobile citizens in the European Parliament elections. This right is of particular importance considering that many EU mobile citizens experience obstacles when they wish to exercise their voting rights “back home”, such as having to reach Consulates which may be far away, or being even obliged to return physically to their home countries to vote. Having the possibility to exercise voting rights in the host Member State therefore ensures that EU mobile citizens are not deprived of their democratic rights.

In 2024, the overall turnout of the European Parliament elections was 50.74%[5]. The EU mobile community in age of voting is estimated to represent around 4% of the EU voting population[6]. However, according to the Report of the 2024 elections to the European Parliament, “turnout among mobile EU citizens appears to have remained lower than that of nationals, although the availability of relevant data varies greatly between Member States.”[7]

Thanks to a long series of activities undertaken in the past few years, such as awareness campaigns, the creation of a voting app[8], focus groups[9] involving a large range of stakeholders, research and analysis, ECAS has gathered a significant number of recommendations to foster the participation of EU mobile citizens in the European Parliament elections.

As mentioned in ECAS’ contribution to the 2023 Citizenship Report[10]: “ Through our focus groups, we have identified that little information on electoral registration processes or political programmes is translated. Having documentation translated in the most broadly spoken language of the EU mobile citizens community of the Member State would increase awareness and participation”.

Moreover, after analysing the different contributions gathered over the years, it appeared clearly that there is a lack of training of civil servants who often do not know exactly what the voting rights of EU mobile citizens are, and therefore do not inform them that they have the possibility not only to vote, but also to stand as candidates for the European Parliament elections. As part of an online course on voting rights[11]ECAS recommended that civil servants receive proper training, and that information is always provided to EU mobile citizens upon arrival in their host country, as soon as they register locally.

To boost the democratic process and particularly the voting rights of citizens with disabilities, ECAS recommended that Member States look into the possibility of e-voting.

Finally, as there currently is no precise data on the political participation of EU mobile citizens in their host countries, ECAS suggested that more statistical data is available in order to track more precisely any developments in the EU voting rights uptake.

In light of the above-mentioned recommendations, we therefore welcome that the amendments to the Council Directive clearly mention that information on rules and registration both to vote and to stand as a candidate to the European Parliament elections is available at least in one other official EU language, broadly spoken in the EU mobile community.

We believe this new measure should be further supported by a real effort from political parties to have their manifestos translated into at least one other language of the EU.

Furthermore, the updated Directive includes the need to designate “one or more authorities with responsibility for taking the measures necessary to ensure that non-national Union citizens are informed in a timely manner of the conditions and detailed rules for registration as a voter or candidate in elections to the European Parliament”.

Although this new requirement does not specifically mention the training of civil servants, the designation of one specific authority in charge of sharing information ahead of the elections should enhance the political participation of EU mobile citizens, who will be better informed.

With regards to the current lack of precise data on the political participation of EU mobile citizens, we welcome the addition to the updated Directive which mentions that Member States shall collect relevant statistical data “on the participation of non-national Union citizens in elections to the European Parliament”, andencourages Member States to provide such data to the public and to the European Commission. We believe that gaining a clearer understanding of the political participation of EU mobile citizens can help identify the reasons behind their low turnout. It will also provide valuable insights for designing targeted information campaigns aimed at sub-groups that are less likely to exercise their voting rights.

Finally, in a similar vein to the 2023 Guide of good electoral practices in Member States addressing the participation of citizens with disabilities in the electoral process[12], the updated Directive took an important step in requesting that Member States ensure that elections-related information is accessible to citizens with disabilities.

After the publication of the updated Directive to the Official Journal, the EU Member States will be given a period of two years to implement its amendments.

A similar proposal has been made on November 25th 2021 to revise Directive 94/80/EC[13] on the exercise of the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in municipal elections by EU mobile citizens. In early 2023, the European Parliament “considered that there should be better provision for disabled mobile EU citizens and asked for the so-called “derogation” provisions, which allow a Member State to restrict the electoral rights of nationals of other EU countries when they represent more than 20% of all EU citizens residing in its territory, to be scrapped”[14].

ECAS encourages that amendments to Directive 94/80/EC are being made in order to boost the democratic participation of EU mobile citizens in municipal elections, and to facilitate the voting rights of citizens with disabilities.

[1] Directive – 93/109 – EN – EUR-Lex

[2] https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9789-2024-REV-1/en/pdf

[3] https://fra.europa.eu/en/eu-charter/article/39-right-vote-and-stand-candidate-elections-european-parliament

[4] EUR-Lex – 12016E022 – EN – EUR-Lex

[5] Turnout | 2024 European election results | European Parliament

[6] EU mobile citizens and their electoral rights – Consilium

[7] EUR-Lex – 52025DC0287 – EN – EUR-Lex

[8] ECAS Voting App – ECAS

[9] Political Participation of EU Mobile Citizens in Belgium – ECAS

[10] Citizenship report 2023 – European Commission

[11] Online Course: Political Rights of EU Citizens – ECAS

[12] Guide of good electoral practices in Member States addressing the participation of citizens with disabilities in the electoral process – European Commission