MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2020) The United Kingdom and Poland on Friday signed a bilateral voting treaty that would ensure that UK citizens in Poland and Polish citizens in the UK would keep the right to vote in local elections, the UK government said.
At the moment, all citizens of the European Union who are residing in the UK are eligible to vote in the country's local elections, but that might change in the post-Brexit era.
"The UK and Poland have signed a treaty that secures the right of British and Polish citizens to stand and vote in local elections in each other's countries following the UK's exit from the EU. This ensures that British people living in Poland and Polish citizens living in the UK have the right to choose who represents them in local government in the country where they reside," the government said in a press release.
The agreement was signed in Warsaw by UK Ambassador in Poland Jonathan Knott and the Polish Secretary of State for Legal and Treaty Affairs, Piotr Wawrzyk, according to the press release.
"We have been determined that the difficult working environments we are all operating in due to the coronavirus pandemic should be no barrier to ensuring the rights of UK nationals living in Poland to elect their local representatives for many years to come, rights that will also be protected for Polish nationals living in the UK," Knott said, as quoted in the press release.
The UK has already signed similar agreements with several other European countries, namely Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg.
