France will soon be heading to the ballot box to vote in the European elections – here’s how to check whether you are eligible and register to vote.

The first thing to establish is whether you are eligible to vote. In order to be eligible in France you need to be aged 18 or over and be both a French resident and a citizen of an EU country.

This includes dual nationals who are citizens of either France or any other EU country, such as Ireland.

Citizens of non-EU countries such as the UK and US cannot vote.

The next stage is to check whether you are already on the electoral roll or not – if you have previously voted then you should be, but if you have recently moved to France, recently moved communes or recently gained French/EU citizenship then you may have to register.

You can check HERE whether you are on the list.

If you are not on the list you will have to register and you can do that either online, by post or in person at the mairie.

Online

You can register online HERE.

The Service Public website warns people against using any kind of private election-subscription service, as only registration done on the French government site is valid.

You will need to provide

• ID (eg a passport, European ID card or carte de séjour)
• Proof of address (eg a recent utility bill or attestation from a utility company)

If you are a citizen of an EU country other than France you will need to also provide a déclaration sur l’honneur swearing that you live in France and will only be exercising your right to vote in France.

You can find a template for this HERE – just fill in the details and it will produce the correct formal wording of the declaration which you can copy and paste into an email or document.

By post / in person 

You can also register in person at your local mairie, or send your request by mail. 

In each case, you will need the same documents – ID and proof of address as described above, plus the déclaration sur l’honneur if you are a citizen of an EU country other than France.

You will also need the completed form to request registration.

If you are a French citizen, you need form Cerfa n° 12669*02 – download it here.

If you are citizen of an EU country other than France, you need form Cerfa n° 12671*02 – download it here.

Deadlines

If you are registering online you must have completed the application by 11.59pm on May 1st

If you are registering in person you must do so by May 3rd.

If you are applying by post then your request must be received by May 3rd. 

Polling day

Polling day in France is Sunday, June 9th (apart from some of the French overseas territories when voting will be on March 8th). Once you are registered to vote you will be sent your voting card and details of your local polling station.

You can find more information about the elections themselves, and how the voting system works, here.