Czech lower house supports ratification of foreigners' rights, except to vote

Yesterday during the opening round of negotiations on ratifying the international Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at local level, the Czech lower house expressed support for the Government’s proposed approach. Some MPs, however, urged caution regarding ratification of the treaty.

The Czech Government’s proposal presumes that even after the Convention is ratified, foreign nationals will still not have the right to vote in local elections even if they are long-term residents. They will remain just European Union residents living in the Czech Republic.  

The Czech Republic intends, according to background materials, only to accede to the part of the Convention regarding foreign nationals’ rights to assemble, associate, and enjoy freedom of speech. Those rights are already guaranteed to foreign nationals in the country.

Caution was urged by Czech MP Miroslava Němcová (Civic Democratic Party – ODS) and by the chair of the lower house’s EU Committee, Czech MP Ondřej Benešík (Christian Democrats -KDU-ČSL). "This is not a standard international treaty," he said.  

Czech MP Pavel Plzák (ANO) said he saw no reason why the Czech Republic should be in the "vanguard" of countries ratifying the Convention. The treaty has already been signed by 14 of the 48 Council of Europe states and its ratification has been completed in eight.

The lower house ultimately sent the Convention for analysis not just to its Foreign Affairs Committee, as is customary, but also to its Committee for Public Administration and its Constitutional Law Committee. The committees will have three months to discuss it instead of the usual two.  

According to the Government’s explanatory report, the Czech Republic does not count on changing foreign nationals’ right to vote in the country any time soon. "The right to vote at local level should not be awarded across the board to all foreign nationals – to citizens of states other than EU Member States – but should only be awarded on the basis of reciprocity," the draft reads.

The other reason for this, according to the report, is the fact that in some municipalities, the concentration of foreigners with permanent residency is significant, and awarding the right to vote would fundamentally impact what goes on in those places in practice. The Government also mentions the possibility of a security risk.

The cabinet also does not want to adopt another part of the treaty concerning the creation of advisory bodies to municipalities with the aim of involving foreign nationals settled on their territory in local public affairs. That part of the Convention presumes that locally resident foreign nationals would be permitted to elect their own representatives, or that representatives could be appointed by their associations.  

The Government believes that would amount to disproportionate interference with Constitutional guarantees regarding local self-administration. Currently the members of municipal commissions and committees are chosen by town councilors or by those on a local executive; this also applies to local committees set up for national minorities, even though the law requires that members of such a minority must comprise at least half the members of such a committee.

The Czech Republic already signed the Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life in the year 2000. Its ratification was halted by the need to modify the law on assembly, which was not amended until six years later.

After analyzing the impacts of any eventual ratification of the entire treaty, the cabinet agreed last September to continue ratification only of the section on assembly, association and freedom of speech, as was presumed when the Convention was initially signed. The Convention’s aim is to support the integration of settled foreign nationals.