52 K. Groenendijk movement brings certain advantages and certain disadvantages. Not having a guarantee that you can vote in national elections in the other member state unless you acquire its nationality is one of the disadvantages. Empirical data indicate that the participation of EU migrants in the municipal elections in the ‘host’ member state is relatively low and that a considerable part of EU migrants hide their migration to another member state from authorities of the member state of their nationality. Moreover, 23 of the 28 Member States allow their nationals living abroad to vote in parliamentary elections. Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Ireland and Malta appear to be the exceptions to the rule. (2) Current Union law is clear. Both the TFEU and the Charter guarantee participation of EU migrants only for the EP elections and the municipal elections in the ‘host’ member state. The right to participate in political parties is only guaranteed at ‘Union level’, not at national level. This was a clear choice of member states during the negotiations on those treaties. The legislator considered that voting at the national level was not within the scope of the Treaty as stipulated in Article 18 TFEU. Only very weighty reason could justify an advice to the Court of Justice to overrule that clear choice of the legislator. (3) The national legislation of member states on the voting rights of non-­ citizens and on the right of nationals abroad to vote in the parliamentary elections at home varies a lot. The differences are due to historical, political or other reasons. It is unwise to disregard those differences. The TFEU specifies that the Union shall respect cultural diversity. Differences in political culture are part of that diversity. I would plea to respect this diversity and to learn from the hot political debates, often going on already for decades on the extension of voting rights to long-term resident third-country nationals (also human beings) in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. There appears to be a difference in approach to this issue between the Southern and the Northern member states. I would expect that in ‘new’ member states there could be more sympathy for the ‘restrictive’ Southern approach than for the more ‘open’ Northern approach. In several member states the debate on extending voting rights to non-citizens or extension of that right to parliamentary elections has been explicitly linked to facilitation of naturalisation of immigrants, e.g. in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. (4) Granting voting rights for elections on the national level will require either amending the TFEU or using the procedure of Article 25 TFEU. In both cases unanimity of all member states is required. Moreover, in many member states it would require amending the constitution and thus broad political consensus. That consensus simply is not available at present in most member states on this issue. The constitutional amendments necessary to introduce voting rights for nationals of other member states in municipal