Tommy Tomescu is a Romanian dentist living and working in London. A passionate fighter for European citizenship rights, he ran for the European Parliament in the 2014 elections for his Europeans Party (you can watch him here as he defies anti-Romanian prejudices in Nigel Farage’s town). The struggle he is engaged in now deserves to be called heroic without fear of contradiction: he has mounted a legal challenge to the European Union Referendum Act 2015, which states that in the Brexit referendum only UK residents who are British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens will have the right to vote. As if suffering from a bad post-Empire hangover, MPs excluded EU citizens residing in Britain as well as Britons residing abroad for over 15 years: in other words, the people whose life will be most affected by Brexit, nationals of EU countries residing in UK and long-term British residents in EU countries, are denied the right to vote, but their fate may well be decided with the contribution of Bermudans, Canadians, and Falkland Islanders.
Tommy lost the first round and below he tells us what happened. We stand by him and wish him eventual success. Because we are shown the way to a breakthrough in transnational democracy and full-fledged citizenship rights – ultimately, a European Union of the citizens and for the citizens, if we think that’s something worth fighting for.
Thank you, Tommy!
£10,000 PUNISHMENT for DARING to ASK for EQUALITY and the RIGHT to VOTE
How much does a human being’s right to vote will cost £100,000 or £1,000,000?
On 16 April 2015, I started a court action against the UK Government in the High Court of Justice, because the law was not changed in time to allow EU Citizens residents in UK to stand or vote in the UK Parliamentary Election, taking into account they allow this to other foreigners (Commonwealth) who contribute less and that Treaty of the EU says ‘’Every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union‘’.
The Judge rejected my claim ordering me to pay £10,000 for daring to ask for equality with other foreigners and enforcement of an EU Treaty. This was no surprise to me and my lawyers, as we were expecting that a Judge from a lower court would not dare to say that I am right in such a political case and we are expecting a more fair treatment from the Superior courts.
While the Judge tried to justify his decision with reference to many arguments raised by me he kept silence on the most important argument raised by me and enshrined in the Treaty of the EU – ‘’Every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union‘’. He did not address this because they cannot find an argument against this.
Within the EU area there are elections at four levels, and there is not a specification in the EU treaties to say that there is a limitation on the levels at which the application of the treaties works:
a – supranational / superstate level
b – national level
c – regional level
d – local level
Democracy is a system of government in which the people vote for their representatives.
It would be an impairment of the EU law which says that ‘’Every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union’’ if EU citizens are not allowed to vote at all levels, including national elections and any referendum.
I have lodged an appeal and tomorrow I will file the Grounds for my appeal.
I will not stop, no matter how much the next UK court may order me to pay, depending on the length of the next court procedures – £100,000 or £1,000,000?
How much does a human being’s right to vote cost?
I will go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if need be, until a reasonable remedy is offered to me and almost 2.5 million EU citizens in the UK.
Dr Tommy Tomescu
Leader of the Europeans Party
PS.
In February and March 2015, I presented my 15 reasons for why EU citizens should be able to vote and stand in the UK Parliamentary Elections, which can be found at www.europeansparty.org/let-us-vote--stand.html
I managed to convince Lord Balfe of Dulwich to introduce a Draft Bill in the House of Lords to allow EU citizens who are resident in the United Kingdom to vote in Parliamentary Elections and to become Members of Parliament:www.publications.parliament.uk/…/…/2015-2016/0027/160027.pdf
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