Changes to European Union Voting and Candidacy Rights

From 7 May 2024, following a change to legislation, European Union (EU) electors will only be able to vote or stand at Local Government elections in England if they are:

• a qualifying EU citizen - a citizen from EU countries with reciprocal agreements with the UK, currently Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Spain (referred to as the EU5), or
• an EU citizen with retained rights - EU citizens from other EU countries who were legally resident in the UK before 31 December 2020 (referred to as the EU19).

Note: Citizens from Ireland, Malta, or Cyprus will retain their voting rights in all UK elections while resident in the UK.

Any EU citizens applying to be added to the Electoral Register will have to indicate whether they were legally reisdent in the UK before the 31 December 2020. 

Eligibility Confirmation Review Process

We wrote to all EU citizens currently registered on the Electoral Register in July to either:

• confirm that they are being retained on the register following a data-based review as being a qualifying EU citizen or having retained rights or
• ask EU citizens to confirm if they remain eligible to be registered to vote under the new criteria, depending upon the response the elector either remained on the register or were removed.  Anybody who did not respond has been removed from the Electoral Register.  

Further information can be found on the Electoral Commission's website.