WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3748/98 by Glyn FORD to the Commission. Voting rights in referenda
C 182/122 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 28. 6. 1999 (1999/C 182/165) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3748/98 by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission (11 December 1998) Subject: Voting rights in referenda Does the Commission take the view that the voting rights enjoyed by EU citizens living and residing in Member States of the EU other than their own should extend to cover referenda on European issues? Can the Commission indicate the current state of legislation in respect of the above for those Member States that allow referenda? Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission (29 January 1999) Article 8b of the EC Treaty lays down that every citizen residing in a Member State of which he is not a national shall have the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at municipal and European Parliament elections in the Member State in which he resides, under the same conditions as nationals of that State. Given that citizens of the Union enjoy the rights conferred by the Treaty under Article 8, there can be no question of the interpretation of the right to vote granted as part of the new citizenship of the Union being extended to include the plebiscites mentioned by the Honourable Member. However, Community law does not prevent a Member State from deciding to grant citizens of the Union (or non-EU countries) resident in their country the right to vote in elections other than those laid down in Article 8b. As regards the Honourable Member’s inquiry as to the current state of legislation on this matter in the Member States, the Commission regrets that it does not have sufficient information at its disposal in order to answer the question. (1999/C 182/166) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3750/98 by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission (11 December 1998) Subject: Shipment of euros Given that there will be euro coins with ‘national symbols’ on one side, and allowing for the enormous movement of people around the EU, can the Commission estimate, without involving some absurd system of shipping ‘foreign coins’ back to the country of origin, how long it will be before the coins are effectively randomly distributed across the EU? Answer given by Mr de Silguy on behalf of the Commission (11 January 1999) According to Article 105 A2 of the EC Treaty, Member States retain the responsibility for issuing coins. Both Member States and the Commission exclude the idea of organising any system of repatriation to bring ‘foreign’ euro coins back to their Member State of origin. In the absence of such a system of repatriation, one can imagine that a mixing of the euro coins with different national symbols will occur throughout the euro area over time