Chapter II, Article 12 · Council Directive (EU) 2026/1194

Contents

Article 12Provision of information#

1.Member States shall ensure that one or more authorities have the responsibility for taking the measures necessary to ensure that non-national Union citizens are informed in a timely manner of the conditions and detailed rules for registration as a voter or candidate in municipal elections.

2.Member States shall ensure that the competent authorities pursuant to paragraph 1 make the following information available to registered Union voters pursuant to Article 3 and registered Union citizens entitled to stand as candidates pursuant to Article 3, in a timely manner:

(a)the status of their registration upon request,

(b)the date of the election and how and where to vote,

(c)means of obtaining further information relating to the organisation of the election, including the list of candidates.

3.The information on conditions and detailed rules for registration as a voter or candidate in municipal elections and the information referred to in paragraph 2 shall be made available in accordance with the quality requirements set out in Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and Council^note in one or more of the official languages of the Member State of residence.General information on the organisation of elections, including the conditions for registration as a voter or candidate, the date of the election and how and where to vote, shall also be available in at least one other official language of the Union as referred to in Article 12(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 or that is broadly understood by Union citizens residing on the territory of the Member State of residence. Member States may request the Commission to provide assistance for such translations in accordance with Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724. Such translations shall be purely informative and shall have no legal effect.

4.Member States shall ensure that information on conditions and detailed rules for registration as a voter or candidate in municipal elections and information referred to in paragraph 2 are made accessible, in particular to persons with disabilities, by using appropriate means, modes and formats of communication.

Defined terms · 7

Show every defined term

basic local government unit
means an administrative entity as listed in Annex I which, in accordance with the laws of the relevant Member State, contains one or more bodies elected by direct universal suffrage and is empowered to administer, at the basic level of political and administrative organisation, certain local affairs under its own responsibility;
electoral roll
means the official register of all voters entitled to vote in a given basic local government unit or in one of its subdivisions, drawn up and kept up to date by the competent authority under the electoral law of the Member State of residence, or the population register if it indicates eligibility to vote;
formal declaration
means a declaration by the person concerned, inaccuracy in which makes that person liable to penalties, in accordance with the applicable national law.
home Member State
means the Member State of which a Union citizen is a national;
Member State of residence
means the Member State in which a Union citizen resides but of which the Union citizen is not a national;
municipal elections
means elections by direct universal suffrage to appoint the members of the representative council and, where appropriate, under the laws of the relevant Member State, the head and members of the executive of a basic local government unit;
reference date
means the day or the days on which Union citizens have to satisfy, under the law of the Member State of residence, the requirements for voting or for standing as a candidate in that Member State;