Increasing mobility challenges us to reconsider the way democracy is conceived and practiced. Inequalities in franchise rights and electoral participation persist across the European Union. Mobile EU citizens may vote at local and European Parliament elections in their chosen Member State of residence and most of them also retain voting rights in these elections in their Member State of nationality.
Some mobile EU citizens are also entitled to participate from abroad in national or sub-national elections held in their origin countries. Yet, some Member States do not provide such electoral entitlements to their non-resident citizens or they impose strict requirements for exercising the voting right from abroad. Franchise entitlements for non-resident nationals and non-national residents vary both within and across EU Member States.
MOBILEU is investigating these inequalities and is focused on the voting rights of both non-resident and non-national groups of mobile EU citizens in their EU Member States of residence and nationality. There is a significant gap in research and policy in relation to elections held in origin countries, such as the ones held at the national level (legislative, presidential, referenda) or regional elections.
Our Objectives
MOBILEU has five objectives:
1 Raise awareness of franchise rights of mobile EU citizens in their Member States of residence and nationality (home and host countries) by developing an interactive digital tool on their electoral entitlements,
2 Map the voting rights of mobile EU citizens across EU27 to identity patterns of convergence and divergence between the regulations in place and share this data widely with EU citizens,
3 Evaluate the awareness and views of general populations as well as of mobile EU citizens on voting entitlements of mobile EU citizens,
4 Provide evidence-based policy recommendations on franchise regulations and collaborate with national electoral authorities and key stakeholders to enable and facilitate democratic participation of mobile EU citizens,
5 Contribute to the academic scholarship on political engagement of mobile EU citizens from a transnational perspective.