The 2024 European Parliament election will have a new age group voting in Belgium. For the first time, 16 and 17-year-olds will vote for their representatives in the European Parliament, following the model of Austria, Greece, and Malta. After several interpretations, the Belgian Constitutional Court ruled that young Belgians would be subjected to compulsory voting as adults, even if the Federal Government decided that voters aged 16 and 17 would not be fined for not showing up.
Young Belgians gain voting rights for 2024 EU elections
The 2024 European Parliament elections are approaching. From 6 to 9 June 2024 around 400 million European citizens in 27 Member States will exercise their right to vote for their representatives in the European Parliament, the world’s only directly elected transnational assembly (EU, European elections, 2024). The European Parliament’s representatives will bring their priorities into the political discussions which will shape the next 5 years of EU legislation and political presence in the international arena.
This time, European Parliament elections will have a new age group going to the polls in Belgium. In fact, as of June 2023, Belgians aged 16 and 17 will be able to vote in the European elections. It means that over 270,000 young people are allowed to participate in the upcoming European elections. The measure also applies to an estimated 13,000 Belgians aged 16 or 17 living abroad (Euronews, 2022).
The choice of extending the right to vote to 16 and 17-year-olds is not recent. Belgium first said that it would extend the right to vote for the European Parliament in 2021, allowing young people from the age of 16 to vote (down from the age of 18) (Walker, 2024).
Nevertheless, it was only in 2022 that the Belgian Federal Parliament passed a law extending the voting rights for the European elections to 16 and 17-year-olds (Elections Europa, 2024). This change is currently only being made to the voting rights for the European elections as this requires a simple majority, whereas a two-thirds majority is needed to alter the voting age for the federal elections, as the constitution has to be changed to do so (Belga News Agency, 2022).
A right or an obligation to vote?
Initially, the right to vote for young people was linked to registration. If 16 and 17-year-olds wanted to vote in the 2024 European Parliament elections, they had to register to vote in advance, either by submitting a form to the municipality or via an online platform (Brussels Times, 2023).
Nevertheless, several months later, the Belgian Constitutional Court ruled that registration was no longer needed, as it stated it was “not reasonably justified” to make their right to vote dependent on such registration. However, voting was still not compulsory for 16- and 17-year-olds, unlike for adults (Walker, 2024).
At this point, a Belgian man went to the Constitutional Court to denounce this inequality (Walker, 2024). Several months later, the Constitutional Court ruled that the difference in treatment between minors and adults was not justified by compelling reasons of public interest.
In particular, the Constitutional Court stated that it is not permissible for 16- and 17-year-olds to have the choice to vote or not, while adult voters are subject to Belgium’s standard obligatory voting rules, as this would create an unjustifiable distinction between different kinds of voters (Walker. 2024). In practice, it means that compulsory voting now also applies to voters aged 16 and 17, meaning they will automatically be placed on the electoral rolls and will receive a convocation letter like adults.
In addition to that, according to the Belgian system, voters who fail to vote can be sanctioned between €40 and €80 (Chini, 2024). In the case of repetition, the fine is 80 to 200 euros. In practice, however, these fines are almost never executed (YouthWiki, 2023).
In the light of the Constitutional Court interpretation, also young people should be subjected to this clause. However, on 27 March 2024, the Federal Government’s so-called ‘core cabinet’ (the Prime Minister and his seven Deputies) decided that voters aged 16 and 17 would not be fined for not showing up (Chini, 2024).
Why the need to lower the voting age?
Belgium is the fourth EU member state to reduce voting ages for European Parliament elections after Austria, Greece, and Malta. Germany just adopted a law in early 2023 lowering the voting age for European elections from 18 to 16 (EU, Voting age, 2024). The Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden recalled that lowering the voting age was one of the demands of the “Conference for the Future of Europe” (Euronews, 2022).
“By giving young people the chance to actively participate in our democracy, they can make their voices heard and we further stimulate their interest in politics. Young people are the future, and they will now be able to help shape that future. I am glad that we are taking this historic step today.”
– Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden (Belga News Agency, 2022)
Belgium is just one of the examples of EU member states that accepted the challenge proposed by the European Parliament back in 2022. In fact, in May 2022, the European Parliament tabled a proposal for a Council regulation on the election of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) by direct universal suffrage and it proposed to lower the voting age to 16, even if allowing for exceptions for ‘existing constitutional orders establishing a minimum voting age of 18 or 17 years of age’ (EU, Voting age, 2024).
NGOs and civil society organisations (CSOs) have also been calling for this change for years. For instance, the European Youth Forum has been strongly advocating lowering the voting age to 16 for local, national and European elections and bridging the gap between young generations and our elected politicians (European Youth Forum, 2024).
At the same time, young people have been calling their Member States to listen to their voices by allowing them to vote. For instance, the recent opening to give the possibility to young people to vote in Belgium was well received by young people. A Belgian 16-year-old shared that this change is a milestone in recognising young people’s right to vote.
“I think it’s a really good idea because it means that we can actually change what we want to change. And so the matters that we find important, we can actually have a voice and so vote for parties or people that we think will carry these values”.
– 16-year-old Alexis Macrae (Mc Mahon, Laliberte, 2023)
As an NGO, Humanium is strongly committed to supporting children’s rights to vote and it campaigns to lower the voting age throughout its online content. In our work we support the principle of inclusion and participation by promoting best practices and examples which testify children’s voices can be heard. If you want to support our work, please consider making a donation, volunteering or becoming a member.
Written by Arianna Braga
References:
Belga News Agency (2022). Voting age for European elections lowered to 16 in Belgium. Retrieved from Belga News Agency at https://www.belganewsagency.eu/voting-age-for-european-elections-lowered-to-16-in-belgium, accessed on 4 April 2024.
Brussels Times (2023). Belgium’s 16-17 year olds can vote in the European elections. Retrieved from The Brussels Times at https://www.brusselstimes.com/493148/belgiums-16-17-year-olds-can-vote-in-the-european-elections, accessed on 4 April 2024.
Chini M. (2024). No sanctions for people aged 16 and 17 who fail to vote in European elections. Retrieved from Brussels Times at https://www.brusselstimes.com/983934/no-sanctions-for-people-aged-16-and-17-who-fail-to-vote-in-european-elections, accessed on 4 April 2024.
Elections Europe (2024). How to vote in Belgium. Retrieved from Europe.eu at https://elections.europa.eu/en/how-to-vote/be/, accessed on 4 April 2024.
EU, European elections (2024). European elections 2024. Retrieved from EU at https://european-union.europa.eu/institutions-law-budget/european-elections-2024_en, accessed on 4 April 2024.
EU, Voting age (2024). Voting age for European elections. Retrieved from European Parliament at https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2023/749767/EPRS_ATA(2023)749767_EN.pdf, accessed on 4 April 2024.
Euronews (2022). Belgium lowers voting age to 16 for European Parliament elections. Retrieved from Euronews at https://www.euronews.com/2022/05/20/belgium-lowers-voting-age-to-16-for-european-parliament-elections, accessed on 4 April 2024.
European Youth Forum (2024). Vote at 16. Retrieved from European Youth Forum at https://www.youthforum.org/topics/vote-at-16, accessed on 4 April 2024.
Mc Mahon M., Laliberte E. (2023). A year ahead: Belgium lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections. Retrieved from https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/06/12/a-year-ahead-belgium-lowers-voting-age-to-16-for-the-european-elections, accessed on 4 April 2024.
Walker L. (2024). Voting now compulsory for people aged 16 and 17 in Belgium, Court rules. Retrieved from Brussels Times at https://www.brusselstimes.com/975806/voting-now-also-compulsory-for-voters-aged-16-or-17-court-rules-tbtb, accessed on 4 April 2024.
YouthWiki (2023). 5.2 Youth participation in representative democracy. Retrieved from YouthWiki at https://national-policies.eacea.ec.europa.eu/youthwiki/chapters/belgium-flemish-community/52-youth-participation-in-representative-democracy, accessed on 4 April 2024.
