European Elections

The European elections (officially the election of Members of European Parliament) are held every five years in all European Union Member States. The Council of the European Union decides on specific time of the elections. In 2024, all Member States will have to hold elections between 6 and 9 June 2024 in accordance with the provisions their national legislation.

Election day in the Finnish European Parliament elections in 2024 will be Sunday 9 June 2024, and advance voting will be held in Finland from Wednesday 29 May to Tuesday 4 June 2024 and abroad from Wednesday 29 May to Saturday 1 June 2024.

For more information on the European elections in general, visit vaalit.fi/en/european-elections.

The Digital and Population Data Services Agency is responsible for establishing and maintaining the electoral register for the European Parliament elections, as in other national elections, and for the notifications of voting rights sent to those included in the electoral register. Other responsibilities of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency in relation to the European Parliament elections include informing citizens of other EU Member States living in Finland about the possibility of voting in the European Parliament elections and the related registration procedure.

 

Right to vote in European elections

An EU citizen can vote in the European elections either in their home Member State (the country of nationality) or in their country of residence. The voter can only vote in European elections in one country. Each EU Member State organises European elections in accordance with its own national legislation.

In the Finnish European Parliament elections, every Finnish citizen aged 18 or over on the election day is entitled to vote, regardless of their place of residence.

In addition, a citizen of another EU Member State who has reached the age of 18 by election day is entitled to vote in the Finnish European Parliament elections if

• they have notified the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, the State Department of Åland or, prior to 2020, the Local Register Office that they wish to vote in the Finnish European Parliament elections and
• the person has
  • a municipality of residence in Finland or
  • temporary residence in Finland and they are employed by the EU or an international organisation operating in Finland or is a family member of such a person. In addition, they must be registered in the Population Information System.

However, a citizen of another EU Member State is not entitled to vote in Finland if they have lost their right to vote in their home Member State through an individual civil law or criminal law decision.

 

Registration of a citizen of another EU Member State to vote in the Finnish European Parliament elections

Digital and Population Data Services Agency will send a letter to all EU citizens residing permanently in Finland about the possibility to take part in Finland’s European election and the steps needed to do so before each European Election. In 2024 the letter will be sent in February. In order to vote in Finland’s European Election a EU citizen must declare his/her wish to do so in writing to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency or, in Åland, to the State Department of Åland. This declaration can be made

• digitally, by using a online form
  • the online form identifies the user digitally, so in order to use this method one must have Finnish online banking codes or another Finnish identification token at one’s disposal (Suomi.fi e-identification tokens)
  • EU citizens living in Finland without a permanent residency status (‘kotikunta’) who are eligible to vote in Finland’s European Election because they are employed by the EU or an International Organization in Finland can not give their declaration digitally.  
• with a paper form (sent to eligible persons as an attachment to the letter mentioned above), by sending the filled form to:
  • Digi- ja väestötietovirasto
    PL 1003
    00531 HELSINKI
  • Or, in the autonomous region of Åland, to
    Statens ämbetsverk på Åland, magistratsenheten
    PB 58 Torgatan 16
    22101 Mariehamn

The declaration must consist of the person’s:

• name
• Finnish personal identity code
• nationality
• address in Finland
• telephone number (in Finland)
• locality, constituency in his/her home Members State on the electorall roll of which his name was last entered
  • an EU citizen’s home Member State is the state whose national he/she is. This information therefore can not be a region/municipality in Finland but the region/municipality/district in the home Member state where he/she was last registered as a voter.
• declaration that he/she will only vote in Finland’s European Election
• declaration that he/she has not been deprived of the right to vote in his Member State through an individual civil law or criminal law decision

EU citizens who live in Finland but are not registered as permanent residents (do not have a ’kotikunta’, home municipality in Finland) and are employed by the European Union or an International Organisation in Finland or are family members of such a person must, in addition to the requirements given above, show that he/she is indeed employed by such an organisation. A good method for doing this is by providing a personal identity card given to all employees and family members by Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that contains information on the person’s employer, when delivering the declaration form.

The declaration must be made on the 80th day before European Election’s election day for it to have effect in said election. In 2024 this means that the declaration has to be delivered on Thursday the 21st of March before 16:00 for it to have effect in 2024 European Elections.

Once given a person does not have declare his/her wish to vote in Finland’s European Elections again. The declaration will remain in force indefinitely and he/she will be automatically included in Finlands electoral roll in the following European Elections as well if the requirements are still met (permanent residency in Finland, nationality in a EU Member State other than Finland). This also means that declarations of the wish to participate in Finland’s European Election given many years ago are still valid and will still lead to the person being included in Finland’s electoral roll.

As soon as the deadline for for declarations given above (21 March 2024 for the 2024 European Elections) has passed the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV) will notify the home Member State of each EU citizen whose declaration of the wish to participate in Finland’s Election has been registered in Finland. The home Member State will then remove each such person from their electoral roll in this European Election. Registering in this way to vote in one’s country of residence will therefore lead to not being able to participate in the European Elections of one’s home Member State.

A previously given declaration can also be cancelled in writing to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (or the State Department of Åland). The same time limits apply to cancelling one’s registration as with giving the declaration in the first place: for it to have effect in a given European Election the cancellation must be delivered before 16:00 on the 80th day before election day. In 2024 this date is Thursday the 21st of March. The registration can also cease to be valid if there are other changes in the persons situation that have an effect on eligibility requirements: if a person gains Finnish nationality, loses EU citizenship or ceases to be a permanent resident in Finland (moves out of the country) the declaration is no longer in effect.

After a declaration of the wish to vote in Finland’s European Election has been made (on time with the proper information) and the requirements for eligibility continue to be met the registered EU citizen will be included in Finland’s electoral roll when it is formed (on the 51st day before election day, Friday the 19th of April in 2024). He or she, along with all other voters will then receive a notification of the right to vote in Finland’s European Elections. These notifications will be sent to alla voters between the formation of the electoral roll and the 16th of May 2024.

 

Eligibility of citizens of other EU Member States to vote in the Finnish European Parliament elections

A citizen of another EU Member State who has the right to vote in Finland is also eligible to stand as a candidate in the Finnish European Elections. For more information on becoming a candidate see vaalit.fi/en/eligibility-and-nomination-of-candidates 

 

The right of a Finnish citizen residing in another EU Member State to vote in the European elections in their country of residence

A Finnish citizen residing in another EU Member State may choose whether to vote in the European elections in their country of residence or in Finland.
If they wish to vote in the European elections in their country of residence, they must register on the electoral roll (electoral register) in their country of residence. The procedure is governed by the law of the State of residence. When a person has been added to the electoral roll of another EU Member State, the electoral authority of the country in question will notify the Digital and Population Data Services Agency in Finland, which will then remove the person’s name from the electoral register of the Finnish elections. In such a situation, the Digital and Population Data Services Agency will always send a written notification to the person in question to the address entered in their Population Information System.

• If the notification of another Member State is received and processed no later than 51 days before the election day (Friday 19 April 2024), the Finnish citizen who has registered to vote in another Member State will not be entered in the electoral register of the Finnish European Parliament elections.
• If the notification of another Member State is received or processed when there are less than 51 days to the election (after Friday 19 April 2024), the Digital and Population Data Services Agency will enter the Finnish citizen who has registered to vote in another Member State as ineligible to vote in Finland’s election. In such a case, the person will receive a notification of the right to vote in the Finnish European parliament elections (as known to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency on 19 April 2024), and only later a written notification that the right to vote in the Finnish European parliament elections does not exist despite the notification of the right to vote, because another Member State has indicated that the person will vote in their election.
• The Digital and Population Data Services Agency processes notifications received from other Member States 12 days prior to the election day (28 May 2024), at which time the electoral register becomes legally valid. If notifications of Finns who have registered as voters in another EU Member State arrive close to this deadline, the notifications of being ineligible to vote posted by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency may only reach the recipient after the start of the advance voting.

The address data in the Population Information System are based on a person's notification of a change of address or on a notification of a change of foreign address after a notification of a move to another country. A person living abroad can submit their up-to-date address to be registered in the Population Information System at dvv.fi/en/moving-while-living-abroad.

An individual's notification of the exercise of the right to vote in another EU Member State is valid until further notice unless the individual withdraws their notification, or the person no longer fulfils the conditions for the right to vote in that Member State.

If a person has previously voted in another EU Member State and moves back to Finland (or to another Member State), they will be responsible to ensure from the authorities of the country they are leaving that their registration as a voter is removed. To ensure this, they must contact the authorities of the country in which they have been registered a national of another EU Member State with the right to vote in the European elections.

Procedure in cases where the notification of voting in another Member State is erroneous

If a Finnish citizen, who has previously resided in another EU Member State, believes that they have lost their right to vote in the European elections because another Member State has incorrectly declared that the Finnish citizen is exercising their right to vote in that Member State, the authority responsible for the electoral roll (electoral register) in the Member State in question must be asked to rectify the error; in practice this means that the voter is removed from the electoral list in the other Member State.

A written certificate of removal from the electoral roll must be requested from the authority of the other Member State. This certificate must still be submitted to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, which can use it as a basis for reinstating the voter in Finland's voter register.

A notification of a person having been registered as a voter in another EU Member State may be considered manifestly incorrect if the Finnish citizen no longer resides in the other Member State based on data in the Population Information System. In such a case the notification from another Member State will be disregarded as erroneous and the right to vote of the person in question will stay in the Finnish electoral register.

If the authority in the other Member State cannot make any further changes to the electoral roll due to rules set out in national legislation, and thus cannot issue a certificate on the person being removed from the electoral roll, the case and possible prerequisites for restoring their right to vote in Finland can be investigated with the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Contact details of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency in questions concerning the right to vote in the European Elections:

Digital and Population Data Services Agency, Elections, PO Box 123, FI-00531 HELSINKI

Telephone: +358 (0)295 536 325 (Finnish, Swedish, English) Open weekdays 9 am - 3 pm