Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2006:231
Date: 2006-04-06
Language of the case: English
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Citizenship of the Union;Provisions governing the Institutions
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - unfounded;Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Spain;United Kingdom;Netherlands

Summary of the Judgment Parliament – Elections – Right to vote and to stand for election – Persons entitled (Arts 17 EC, 19 EC, 189 EC and 190 EC) In the current state of Community law, the definition of the persons entitled to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament falls within the competence of each Member State in compliance with Community law. Articles 189 EC, 190 EC, 17 EC and 19 EC do not preclude the Member States from granting that right to vote and to stand as a candidate to certain persons who have close links to them, other than their own nationals or citizens of the Union resident in their territory. Neither Articles 189 EC and 190 EC nor the Act concerning the election of the representatives of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage expressly and precisely state who are to be entitled to the right to vote and to stand as a candidate for the European Parliament. As regards Articles 17 EC and 19 EC, relating to citizenship of the Union, only the latter deals specifically, in paragraph 2, with the right to vote for the European Parliament. That article is confined to applying the principle of non‑discrimination on grounds of nationality to the exercise of that right. Also, as regards the possible existence of a clear link between citizenship of the Union and the right to vote and stand for election which requires that that right be always limited to citizens of the Union, no clear conclusion can be drawn in that regard from Articles 189 EC and 190 EC, relating to the European Parliament, which state that it is to consist of representatives of the peoples of the Member States. The term ‘peoples’, which is not defined, can have different meanings in the Member States and languages of the Union. As regards the Treaty’s articles relating to citizenship of the Union, no principle can be derived from them that citizens of the Union are the only persons entitled under all the other provisions of the Treaty, which would imply that Articles 189 EC and 190 EC apply to those citizens alone. In fact, while Article 17(2) EC provides that citizens of the Union are to enjoy the rights conferred by the Treaty and be subject to the duties imposed by it, the Treaty recognises rights which are linked neither to citizenship of the Union nor even to nationality of a Member State. As regards Article 19(2) EC, while it implies that nationals of a Member State have the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in their own country and requires the Member States to accord those rights to citizens of the Union residing in their territory, it does not follow that a Member State is prevented from granting the right to vote and to stand for election to certain persons who have a close link with it without however being nationals of that State or another Member State. In addition, since the number of representatives elected in each Member State is laid down by Article 190(2) EC and since, in the current state of Community law, elections to the European Parliament are held in each Member State for the representatives to be elected in that State, an extension by a Member State of the right to vote at those elections to persons other than its own nationals or other than citizens of the Union resident in its territory affects only the choice of the representatives elected in that Member State and has no effect either on the choice or on the number of representatives elected in the other Member States. It follows that the United Kingdom did not infringe Articles 189 EC, 190 EC, 17 EC and 19 EC by adopting a law which provides, in relation to Gibraltar, that Commonwealth citizens resident in Gibraltar who are not Community nationals have the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament. (see paras 65-66, 70-73, 76-78, 80)