EU citizens' voting
Following the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union and the implementation of the Elections Act 2022, there have been changes to the voting and registration rights for citizens of European Union nations. Please note that this does not affect citizens of Ireland, Cyprus, and Malta. If you are a citizen of one of these countries, you will remain on the register, and there will be no changes to your voting rights.
You can only register and vote if you are a citizen of:
- Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, or Spain who is resident in the UK or has permission to enter or stay in the UK
- any other EU country who has continuously been a legal resident of the UK since or before 31 December 2020.
Why Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, and Spain?
The UK has mutual agreements with these countries. As a result, citizens of Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, and Spain living in the UK can still vote and stand as candidates in UK elections (excluding UK Parliament elections).
If you’ve received a letter or email about your eligibility to vote
We are contacting all EU citizens as part of this review to either:
- inform you that you are still eligible to vote in some UK elections
- ask you to provide information that will be used to confirm whether you are eligible.
If you confirm that you do not meet the eligibility criteria or do not provide the requested details, you will no longer be eligible to vote in:
- local elections
- Mayoral elections
- Greater London Assembly elections.
If you respond and are deemed ineligible to vote
- you have 14 calendar days to request a hearing if you believe this is incorrect
- if you do not request a hearing within 14 calendar days, you will not be able to object to the decision.
If you do not respond
We will determine that you are ineligible, you will be removed from the register, and you will not be able to vote in any elections. However you will not be prevented from re-registering to vote in the future.
Changes to candidacy rights
- the changes to candidacy rights for EU citizens came into force on 7 May 2024. Transitional arrangements will enable EU citizens elected to office before this date to remain in office for their full term.
- from 7 May 2024, EU citizens standing as candidates will need to have been legally resident in the UK prior to 31 December 2020 (i.e., have leave to enter or remain in the UK, or do not require such leave) or be a citizen from an EU5 country (Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Spain) in order to be eligible to stand as a candidate.