The European Commission issued guidance on 29 January 2014 to EU Member States whose rules lead to the loss of voting rights for their own citizens in national elections, simply because they have exercised their right to free movement in the EU.
Five Member States including the UK (the others are Denmark, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta) currently apply regimes which have that effect.
The European Commission has accordingly sent a Recommendation to those five Member States, calling on them to enable their nationals who have availed themselves of their right to free movement and residence in the Union may remain on the electoral roll, thus demonstrating their continuing interest in the political life in their home Member State. In essence, the Commission means that expats should remain registered on the electoral roll without time or other arbitrary limitation.
Conservatives Abroad, which has long campaigned for the abolition of all restrictions on British expats' voting rights, welcomes the news.
President and former Chairman of British Conservatives in Paris, and currently Poltical Advisor to Conservatives Abroad Christopher Chantrey OBE, said: "What the Commission is saying makes perfect sense in today's interconnected world. One of the founding principles on which the EU was built is the free movement of people - and of course this can only mean freedom to live and work in another Member State without penalty. The Commission's findings are based on consultations with a wide range of people, so they are legitimate. When you think that there are a million and a half or more UK nationals living in other EU countries, it is hard to be proud of a Britain which discriminates arbitrarily against its own citizens on the grounds of where they live. So the sooner the government repeals this unfair, arbitrary and nonsensical law which disenfranchises British expats after 15 years' residence outside the UK, the better."