British expat WINS French court battle to restore pre-Brexit right that could open floodgates for Brits

By SOPHIA STANFORD

Published: 15:57 BST, 29 May 2025 | Updated: 16:09 BST, 29 May 2025

A British woman living in France is overjoyed to have her voting rights restored in a move that could shake up post-Brexit rules.

Alice Bouilliez said she was ‘extremely surprised’ that a court in Auch, south-west France, ruled she would be able to vote in local elections. 

Experts now believe the shock ruling could set a precedent for all Brits who had permanent resident status in the European country before the referendum. 

Ms Bouilliez, who has lived in France for nearly four decades, was able to vote before the Brexit deal went through in 2020 but it was not made clear what her rights would be afterwards.

Despite having residency and being married to a Frenchman, Ms Bouillez never became a citizen – in part down to her oath she took to the British Crown while working as a civil servant in the Foreign Office.

The retiree, alongside several other disgruntled Brits, eventually took the case to the European court of justice in 2022 after years of legal battles, although they ruled against her.

Their argument, based on the advice of advocate general Anthony Collins, was that ‘nationality of a member state’ was an ‘essential condition of a person to be able to acquire and retain the status of citizens of the union and to benefit fully from the rights attaching to that status’.

Her being stripped of her voting rights was ‘an automatic consequence of the sole sovereign decision taken by the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union’. 

Former civil servant Alice Bouillez said she was ‘extremely surprised’ that a court in Auch, south-west France, ruled she would be able to vote in local elections 

But Ms Bouillez’s lawyer argued that the court could not disenfranchise those who already had the rights protected under the EU treaty before Brexit – an argument that proved true. 

‘The court ruled that Alice had not committed any crime and that to lose her voting rights was a fundamental and disproportionate infringement of her voting rights,’ Julien Fouchet said after today’s ruling.

‘The right to vote is a common good, it is more than just a right,’ he was reported saying in The Guardian.

An ‘extremely happy’ Ms Bouillez said ‘when I went to get the ruling from the court I was extremely surprised because I was expecting a knock on the knuckles’. 

The barrister added that this ruling could now restore the rights of Brits on the continent if they wanted their name on the electoral register for local elections.

He said: ‘The French and UK governments should have a bilateral treaty reciprocating the right to vote in municipal elections.

‘I see this judgment as an opportunity, especially in light of the recent UK-EU summit, to get an agreement on this.’

Before the Brexit referendum, Brits living in France could vote in municipal and European parliamentary elections but not in national, presidential or legislative elections.

Experts now believe the shock ruling could set a precedent for all Brits who had permanent resident status in the European country before the referendum to be able to vote

This was generally the same rules across most European countries. 

Europeans also had these same rights living in the UK but most countries – apart from Ireland, Cyprus and Malta – are now unable to vote here.

The British government had tried to make reciprocal voting rights part of the Brexit deal but the EU insisted on having bilateral treaties instead.

And in 2018, the House of Commons passed a motion which insisted British nationals who have an EU citizenship should have ‘the range of rights and protections afforded to individuals as European Union citizens are integral to a person’s European identity’. 

The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment, as well as the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.

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British expat WINS French court battle to restore pre-Brexit right that could open floodgates for Brits

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