argomento: News del mese - Diritto Internazionale e Comunitario

Articoli Correlati: Brexit - right to vote - citizenship

On 9 June 2022, the European Court of Justice, with the sentence in case C-673/20, ruled that following Brexit, British citizens already residing in another E.U. Member State lost the right to vote and to be eligible for municipal elections in the place of residence following the loss of European citizenship. Foreclosure does not cease due to the fact that the British citizen, after fifteen years of residence abroad, loses the right to vote in the United Kingdom as well. The story arises from the preliminary ruling of the French judge to whom a British citizen residing in France had already addressed the transition period set by the EU-UK agreements on Brexit. In the specific case, the woman married to a French citizen and residing in France since the 1980s had never applied for and obtained citizenship of the country where she resided and, once the United Kingdom left the E.U., she was canceled from the voter lists for the vote of municipal representatives, a right previously guaranteed to every European citizen in the Member State of residence. The woman had taken legal action for the “restoration” of the right, pointing out that she no longer enjoys the right to vote and stand as a candidate in the United Kingdom due to the British rule of so-called “fifteen years”, under which the British citizen who has resided abroad for more than fifteen years is no longer authorized to participate in elections held in the United Kingdom. The woman, therefore, found herself deprived of any right to vote and to stand as a candidate, both in France and in the United Kingdom.