Although the general trend is to extend the right to passive suffrage, or candidacy, to all citizens, some limitations exist in cases where the person does not have it by birth but, rather, by naturalisation. Usually, the limitation is temporary and reduced after a few years, though in the American system, for certain posts, such as the presidency, it tends to be permanent.
There is no shortage, however, of exceptions to nationality being demanded as a requirement for passive suffrage. This is the case in some of the northern European countries and Paraguay, which do not demand it for the respective citizens in the municipal elections and, on a higher evolutionary level, the member states of the European Union (see Election of the European Parliament Members). In each one of these,
along with the recognised possibilities for local elections, a national of any of the Union States can stand as a candidate for the European Parliament. The functions of the Parliament are not yet comparable to those an equivalent chamber in a federation would have, but it is an important step in the gradual constitution of the right to supranational suffrage in the
European framework.
The Nordic and European Union experiences in the local sphere also
point in this direction. The possibility of voting is granted to foreign residents in the municipality, regardless of their nationality, so having actually settled down and personal interest thus outweigh the limitation ex lege to the nationals, characteristic of the traditional concept of citizenship.
