Throughout the European Union tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of European citizens pay their taxes in the country in which they live, but are denied full rights to vote - and the ill-fated "Constitution" proposes nothing new to resolve this problem..
For hundreds of years taxation without representation has been considered as tyranny. Yet this shameful situation is precisely what happens in some European Union countries, which are supposed to conform to the principles of modern 21st-century democracy.
A few hundred years ago, when Britain was at the height of its colonial powers, it taxed its colony across the Atlantic without giving the inhabitants a say in choosing their Government.. James Otis, in Watchword of the American Revolution, wrote: "Taxation without representation is tyranny", and round about the same period Earl Camden, in a speech in the House of Lords, said: "The British Parliament has no right to tax the Americans....Taxation and representation are inseparable. God hath joined them; no British Parliament can put them asunder. To endeavour to do so is to stab our very vitals." The result: revolution and America.
Today slavery has been abolished, but the vitals of many EU citizens who have seized the concept of the European ideal and have 'freely circulated' to work and live in another EU state are regularly stabbed. We are, quite understandably, taxed … and considerable effort is made to ensure that we are well-taxed ! But we do not have the absolute right to vote to elect the authority that taxes us, and some of us have no right to vote to elect any national government : neither that in our country of origin nor that in our adopted country of residence, and that is a negligence of the EU member-states that should outrage any right-thinking person.
There are exceptions: Irish citizens resident in the U.K. have for many years voted in the British parliamentary elections. Other EU citizens resident in the U.K. can vote in county council and regional assembly elections, but not in the General Election. Cypriots and Maltese, however, can vote in the General Election because they are also Commonwealth citizens. Throughout the rest of Europe, however, all EU citizens have the right to vote only for a European Parliamentary Representative and in local village or town (not the equivalent of county council) elections. It is not our village councillors who are elected to tax us, to manage our economy and to govern the country in which we work and pay.
We believe that in a modern, 21st century European Union, EU citizens that live in a country other than that of their origin should have the right to vote in all elections, just as they have the duty to pay all taxes. If you agree with us, please sign the petition by filling in your details in the form below and pressing the "sign" button.
Christian Devillez (Belgium)
Graham Wilson (email address:
gwilson.uet at wanadoo.fr)*
Marianne Van Es-Grundy (Netherlands)
Paul
Williams (email address: paul at 123voyage.com)*
*We have put our email addresses as " joebloggs at joebloggs.com" to avoid robots "harvesting" our email addresses but if you wish to contact us obviously you replace the "at" by an @ sign and lose the spaces).
PRIVACY: Please note that your details are kept solely for the purpose of this petition and will not be used for any commercial purposes whatsoever, or passed to a third party.