Expatriates eligible to run for office with EU national parties, citizenship not required

Brussels – You can be an active politician and run for office in a party of an EU member country even if you do not have citizenship of that country, but you are only a resident. What does that mean? That if a Belgian wants to run in elections for the German Social Democratic Party, he can do so. As long as it is a local or European election, the only ones for which one can run as a “foreigner”. This was made clear by the EU Court of Justice, which, in a ruling, automatically rebukes Poland and the Czech Republic for policies that discriminate against other European citizens.

Luxembourg judges ruled that denying Union citizens who reside in a member state without being its nationals the right to become members of a political party violates Union law. Specifically, it violates Article 22 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which explicitly recognizes the possibility of election and eligibility without a citizenship requirement. The mere fact of being an EU citizen automatically confers rights. 

Nationalistic or patriotic logic and narratives do not apply under EU law. Lacked or prohibited membership in political parties “cannot be justified on grounds of respect for national identity,” clarifies the ruling pronounced by the Court of Justice of the EU. Moreover, the lack of access to active politics goes against the foundations of the European Union. Political parties, it is reminded, “play a fundamental role in the system of representative democracy, which concretizes the value of democracy on which the Union is notably founded.”