After the Treaty of Maastricht, voting rights were granted to EC non-national residents in local and European elections and 17 European countries (including Belgium and Luxembourg) extended this right to third-country nationals for the local elections.
The purpose of this paper is to explain the variation of registration rates of EU residents and third-country nationals in Belgium and in Luxembourg. The main hypothesis is that foreigners’ registration is primarily influenced by the level of mobilization of the municipalities (organization of awareness raising campaigns) and, although to a lesser extent, by other determinants, such as social variables and institutional factors. Empirically, this hypothesis will be tested through a multivariate analysis of a unique dataset combining both official figures at the municipal level and compiled and coded data on the number and the type of information campaigns organized by municipalities which I collected through a new survey.
