# Council Directive 93/109/EC of 6 December 1993 laying down detailed arrangements for the exercise of the right to vote and stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament for citizens of the Union residing in a Member State of which they are not nationals, Article 14

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

1. If on 1 January 1993, in a given Member State, the proportion of citizens of the Union of voting age who reside in it but are not nationals of it exceeds 20 % of the total number of citizens of the Union residing there who are of voting age, that Member State may, by way of derogation from Articles 3, 9 and 10:
(a) restrict the right to vote to Community voters who have resided in that Member State for a minimum period, which may not exceed five years;
(b) restrict the right to stand as a candidate to Community nationals entitled to stand as candidates who have resided in that Member State for a minimum period, which may not exceed 10 years.
These provisions are without prejudice to appropriate measures which this Member State may take with regard to the composition of lists of candidates and which are intended in particular to encourage the integration of non-national citizens of the Union.
However, Community voters and Community nationals entitled to stand as candidates who, owing to the fact that they have taken up residence outside their home Member State or by reason of the duration of such residence, do not have the right to vote or to stand as candidates in that home State shall not be subject to the conditions as to length of residence set out above.
2. Where, on 1 February 1994, the laws of a Member State prescribe that the nationals of another Member State who reside there have the right to vote for the national parliament of that State and, for that purpose, may be entered on the electoral roll of that State under exactly the same conditions as national voters, the first Member State may, by way of derogation from this Directive, refrain from applying Articles 6 to 13 in respect of such nationals.
3. By 31 December 1997 and thereafter 18 months prior to each election to the European Parliament, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and to the Council a report in which it shall check whether the grant to the Member States concerned of a derogation pursuant to Article 8b (2) of the EC Treaty is still warranted and shall propose that any necessary adjustments be made.
Member States which invoke derogations under paragraph 1 shall furnish the Commission with all the necessary background information.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/1993/109/article/14 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-directive-1993-109/article-14
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.