EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/480

(2004/C 78 E/0502)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3173/03

by Koenraad Dillen (NI) to the Commission

(27 October 2003)

Subject: Voting rights for immigrants

During a visit to Cairo last week, European Commission President, Romano Prodi, became involved in the debate currently taking place in Italy concerning voting rights for immigrants in local elections. Romano Prodi clearly supported voting rights for non-European citizens in Member States of the European Union.

Was Romano Prodi speaking in his capacity as European Commission President or as an Italian politician? In other words, was Romano Prodi voicing the official position of the current European Commission?

Has the European Commission expressed any official stance on voting rights for foreigners in the European Union in the past? On the basis of what discussions were such positions reached?

More generally, does the European Commission believe that voting rights for non-European citizens in the Member States can be regulated in the same way in all Member States by means of a directive, or does it consider that the organisation of elections and the formalities applying to voting rights/compulsory voting for foreigners should fall exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Member States themselves?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(16 December 2003)

The opinion of the Commission concerning civic citizenship and political rights for third country nationals has been expressed on a number of occasions including by the Commission's President Romano Prodi.

The Tampere European Council (1999) set the guidelines for a common Union asylum and immigration policy. This policy includes the element of fair treatment of third country nationals residing legally on the territory of the Member States. The European Council conclusions state that the legal status of the legally resident third country nationals should be approximated to that of Member States' nationals. Third country nationals should be granted a set of uniform rights, which are as near as possible to those enjoyed, by Union citizens; e.g. right to reside, receive education, and work, as well as the principle of nondiscrimination vis-à-vis the citizens of the State of residence.

This is concretised by the proposed Directive concerning the status of third country nationals who are long-term residents (1), on which the Council reached political agreement on 5 June 2003. In its recent Communication on immigration, integration and employment (2) the Commission suggested that Member States consider granting political rights to long-term residents, in particular at local level, when transposing this Directive into national law.

The Commission has taken measures to achieve the targets set in Tampere. The Commission Communications on a Community immigration policy (3) and on an open method of co-ordination for the Community immigration policy (4) introduced the concept of ‘civic citizenship’ (comprising a common set of core rights and obligations) for third country nationals, as a mean of the common policy for integration of immigrants. The Commission will also take forward the development of this concept in the framework of the exchange of best practices and information in the group of national contact points on integration.

The Commission believes that civic citizenship and granting long-term resident immigrants political rights is important for the integration process and that the future Constitution should provide a legal basis for doing so, which is not the case with the current Treaties. The Commission put forward these objectives in the Convention on the Future of Europe, but they were not taken on board.

(1) OJ C 240 E, 28.8.2001.

(2) COM(2003) 336 final.

(3) COM(2000) 757 final.

(4) COM(2001) 387 final.