CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

MAGDALÉNA SVOBODOVÁ CYIL 11 (2020) But, in the area of political participation, it is evident that the political rights of Union citizens are not equal to the rights of nationals. Union citizens have no right to vote and to stand as a candidate in parliamentary elections, presidential elections, and other national elections. Kochenov remarks in relation to drafting and the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty which introduced Union citizenship: while the early proposals striving to explore the possibilities of shaping the European citizenship status used to include a national level of political representation among the political rights to which European citizens residing in the Member States other than their Member State of nationality were supposed to be entitled to, the drafters gathered at the Maastricht IGC, fearful of further erosion of national sovereignty of the Member States in the domains widely considered vital, decided to exclude this level of representation from the Treaties. 33 It implies that Member States – Masters of the Treaties – intentionally did not want to grant full political rights to Union citizens in a State of residence. It is also worth noting that the European citizens’ initiative “Let me vote” 34 which sought to extend electoral rights of Union citizens to all national elections in the country of residence was not successful because it was not supported by a sufficient number of Union citizens. 35 Accordingly, one may come to the conclusion that Article 16 ECHR, albeit drafted in 1950, still may have certain legal effect in connection with political rights of Union citizens. It follows from the foregoing that neither the Union Charter nor the ECHR, in my opinion, guarantee the right of EU citizens to join national political parties in the current phase of European integration. However, these documents do not prevent EU Member States from permitting foreigners from becoming members of national political parties (or to found a new political party). The Convention which was drafting the Union Charter, rejected Spanish proposal excluding Union citizens from the right to establish a political party in the State of residence. 36 From the comparative perspective, the approach of EUMember States to the membership of Union citizens (or foreigners) in national political parties is very heterogenous. A study elaborated by the Czech Parliament in 2015 37 shows that only nationals of that Member State may join political parties, for instance, in Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania. Membership in political parties is not conditioned by nationality e.g. in Cyprus, Finland, France, Italy. In some Member States, a new political party may be founded only by own nationals (Latvia, Spain). Slovakian law does not allow persons who are not Slovak nationals to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections to the bodies of national political parties. In Latvia, at least one half of members of a national political party must have Latvian nationality. 33 KOCHENOV, p. 15. 34 See https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/initiatives/details/2013/000003_en [Accessed: 30. 5. 2020]. 35 Recently, similar initiative was registered by the European Commission called “Voters Without Borders, Full Political Rights for EU Citizens”, see https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/news/new-initiative-registered-voters- without-borders_en [Accessed: 30. 5. 2020]. 36 See PEERS, HARVEY, KENNER, WARD, p. 1059. 37 See KUTA, M., NĚMEC, J., FOUSEK, J. Volební právo a členství cizinců v politických stranách v zemích EU. [Electoral rights and membership of foreigners in political parties in EU Member States]. Study of the Parliamentary Institute No 1.232, January 2015, available in Czech language at https://www.psp.cz/ doc/00/10/33/00103354.pdf [Accessed: 30. 5. 2020].

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