Petition letter to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, president-in-turn of
the EU
EU citizenship and the right to vote of all residents
In
the European Union, political rights of non-national EU residents are still an
unresolved matter. To a great extent this is due to the Maastricht Treaty,
which strictly reserves, EU citizenship for nationals of Member States,
resulting in a form of discrimination that denies rights on the grounds of
nationality. Unfortunately, the Lisbon Treaty only confirms this position.
The
undersigned associations believe European citizenship should be subject to
residence, in the conditions established, but not necessarily to nationality of
a Member State. Only 8 out of 27 Member States have a population that exceeds
the 15 million non-national EU residents living in EU territory. States cannot
claim equal rights and democracy as the Union’s foundations and, then, exclude
millions of residents from political participation.
Several
countries have extended the right to vote in local elections to non-national EU
residents and, in some places, foreigners have also been granted passive
suffrage (the right to stand for election). In the United Kingdom, Commonwealth
nationals are granted active and passive suffrage in all elections, including
local and European elections.
The Tampere Summit Conclusions (16/10/1999), “towards a Union of
freedom, security and justice”, follows the same trend. Without mentioning
citizenship or the right to vote, the document states: “The legal status of
third country nationals should be approximated to that of Member States'
nationals. A person, who has resided legally in a Member State for a period of
time to be determined and who holds a long-term residence permit, should be
granted in that Member State a set of uniform rights which are as near as
possible to those enjoyed by EU citizens”.
Despite its independence from the EU, it is worth noticing that the
Council of Europe fostered the European Convention on the Participation of
Foreigners in Public Life at Local Level, which encouraged the recognition of
foreigner residents’ right to vote in local elections. All EU Member States are
members of the Council of Europe and some of them ratified this Convention.
In
light of the aforementioned, we ask you to please raise the reform of the
Lisbon Treaty during the last meeting of the Council of Europe to be held under
the Spanish presidency-in-turn (on 17th and 18th June in
Brussels). We need a reform that grants EU citizenship and, consequently, the
right to vote and stand for local and European elections, to all EU residents,
regardless of their nationality. We think this is a great opportunity to mend
your ways with the Lisbon Treaty and we believe it will be, in the eyes of the
rest of the world, a very important step of the EU towards equal rights,
respect for human rights and democracy.
Signatory
Associations and Organisations
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Please
forward the signatures to andalucia@apdha.org until 30th May.
This letter
will be sent, together with all the signatures, to the President of the Spanish
Government, Mr Rodríguez Zapatero, and to the media.