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<p>Under EU law, EU citizens living in another Member State are able to vote in their
State of residence in European Parliamentary elections. Member States will, therefore,
arrange for EU nationals to register to vote in their State of residence for these
elections. Member States in advance of an upcoming European Parliamentary poll will
exchange with each other data on EU nationals who have chosen to register to vote
in another Member State. This is intended to identify and avoid double voting at European
elections.</p><p> </p><p>In the UK, the UC1 form implements this requirement under
EU law. EU Council Directive 93/109/EC requires all Member States to send the details
of any EU citizens’ declarations to the state they are a citizen of, “sufficiently
in advance of polling day” to ensure an EU citizen does not vote twice in the same
European Parliamentary election. This is not a new requirement and has been in place
for previous European Parliamentary elections. A similar provision applies to UK citizens
living in the other EU Member States.</p><p> </p><p>The UK Government receives data
about UK citizens from the other Member States via a secure online portal managed
by the European Commission. Data that can be matched to a local authority is then
shared with the relevant local authority via encrypted file transfers. Electoral Registration
Officers are responsible for sending the data in respect of EU nationals in the UK
to the relevant Member States; the Cabinet Office does not see this data. The requested
figures are attached in a deposited paper.</p><p> </p><p>In practice, we have found
that the Commission’s voter information exchange process is of poor quality, as Member
States record different information in respect of persons registering to vote and
this may not be sufficient for other States to identify them.</p><p> </p><p>For the
avoidance of doubt, this does not hinder the ability of the citizen to register to
vote, nor indeed, to vote legally in elections.</p><p> </p><p>Rather, this is a deficiency
in the European Commission’s mechanism to identify double voting. Notwithstanding,
it is a criminal offence to vote twice in such elections, and information on voting
participation will be recorded in marked registers.</p><p><strong><p><p><br></strong></p><p>
</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>The requested figures for the European Parliamentary
elections in 2014 and 2019 are as follows:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Belgium</p></td><td><p>
</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Usable Records Received</p></td><td><p>Records
Sent to Member State</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>1,699</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>Not
available yet*</p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Germany</p></td><td><p>
</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Usable Records Received</p></td><td><p>Records
Sent to Member State</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>28</p></td><td><p>13,101</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019</p></td><td><p>18</p></td><td><p>Not
available yet*</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>*The figures for the 2019 European
Parliamentary elections are not currently available.</p><p> </p>
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