Political equality of EU citizens and their right to vote beyond <i>Delvigne</i>

Abstract European Parliamentary (EP) elections are central to ‘the democratic life of the Union’ in which ‘every citizen shall have a right to participate’ (Treaty on European Union Article 10(3)). Members of the European Parliament ‘shall be elected by direct universal suffrage’ (Charter of Fundamental Rights Article 39(2)) and ‘[e]very person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union’ (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union). This article explores the right to vote in EP elections and sets out four critiques of its current legal state which results in divergent eligibility criteria across Member States. To address these shortcomings, the article makes four propositions, arguing that eligibility criteria for EP elections should be uniform across Member States and thus harmonized. The article draws an analogy with existing uniform eligibility criteria for elections in national federal elections and seeks to take into account the nature of EP elections and the fact that EU Member States are acting on behalf of the Union when they administer and regulate such elections. The article critically appraises the European Parliament’s 2022 partial harmonization proposal, arguing that its contents should be revisited so that future elections will adhere to principles of political equality.