EU citizens, eligibility confirmation review

There are two types of EU Citizens who will retain their voting and candidacy rights:

• Qualifying EU Citizens - citizens of EU countries which the UK has a shared Voting and Candidacy Rights (VCR) treaty with. As of May 2024, countries include in this list are:
  • Luxembourg
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Spain
  • Denmark.
• EU citizens with retained rights - citizens from any other EU country who have been legally resident in the UK since before the UK left the EU on 31 December 2020.

The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) is required to conduct a review of all EU Citizens on the electoral register called the Eligibility Confirmation Review (ECR).

Eligibility Confirmation Review

During the first stage of the review, the ERO will conduct a review of historical electoral register records to confirm if an EU voter was legally resident in the UK before 31 December 2020.

If we are not able to confirm whether an EU voter was legally resident in the UK before 31 December 2020 from this data, an email or letter will be sent to the voter to confirm if they remain eligible to be registered under the new criteria for EU voters.

EU citizens who will be contacted

As part of the second stage of the review, we will write to you if our records show you are an EU citizen and we have been unable to confirm your eligibility to remain registered using our records.

We will contact EU citizens where a shared Voting and Candidacy Rights (VCR) treaty has not been reached with the UK Government, which includes the following countries:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• The Netherlands
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Sweden

How to respond

If you have received a letter or email asking you to confirm your eligibility, you'll need to either:

• Use the login details sent to you and reply at Gov.uk: Reply to your Electoral Registration Office about your voting rights
• complete a paper form included in your letter and return it to us. 

Please note emails will be sent from electoralservices@durham.gov.uk.

We will also send two reminder forms as part of the process. The second reminder form will be hand delivered by our canvassers who will visit identified properties and can help with the completion of the form. Canvassers are required to door knock at least once and will post the form through the door if no one is home. All canvassers will be wearing Durham County Council identification badges.

If you confirm you do not meet the eligibility criteria or you do not provide details as requested, you'll no longer be eligible to vote in local government elections and PCC elections. You'll receive a letter confirming this. 

If you're eligible to remain registered, you can also re-register to vote online at Gov.uk: register to vote.

If you are unsure how to respond to the review, please Contact Electoral Services