Mr President, may I firstly congratulate Mrs Palacio Vallelersundi on her excellent presentation this morning. It is with a feeling of déjà vu that I rise to speak to this report in my maiden speech. It is 20 years this month since I first stood up to speak as a nominated member from the Westminster Parliament, in the old Assembly before direct elections. Much as changed since 1974, even this building.

May I firstly pay tribute to Sir James Scott-Hopkins who retired in June and whose seat I now represent. He had a long and distinguished career both in Westminster and in Europe. I am sure Members from all parties would wish him a happy retirement.

Mr President, as rapporteur for the Committee on Regional Policy in its opinion to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights, we looked closely at this report. This new provision enshrines a right for which Parliament has been calling for years. It also confirms the new direction of Union policy. Union citizenship covers the right to vote and the right to stand as a candidate at both European and municipal elections. However, the Regional Committee believes the basis of this right to be different in each case. The right to be elected and to vote in European elections is directly derived from the idea of voters being citizens of the Union. The right to vote and to stand as a candidate in municipal elections, however, appears to derive from the full freedom of establishment granted to the citizens of the Union by the Treaty of the European Union.

The proposal for a directive meets its declared objective fairly well but some comment is needed on particular aspects of the text. The Member States are extremely diverse as regards not only their electoral laws but also the structure and powers of their local authorities. This makes the task of laying down voting arrangements difficult and makes subsidiarity important. It is for this reason that certain exemptions were built into this directive. However, when these exemptions were voted on by this Parliament during the debate on the European elections, on 17 November 1993, Parliament voted to abolish the exceptions on the basis it amounted to discrimination on the basis of nationality. The nations concerned naturally feel strongly about these exceptions. Parliament will again have to decide how it views these exceptions. The Regional Committee unanimously adopted the report as amended.

Mr President, let us remember that this text simply seeks to remove the obstacles which prevent citizens of the Union from exercising the right to vote and stand as candidates at municipal elections in the member state of residence whether or not they are nationals of that country. The main objective, therefore, is to replace the nationality requirement by the Union requirement of citizenship of the Union and not to achieve overall approximation of Member States' electoral laws. Harmonization of that, Mr President, I believe is a long way off.