Thousands of EU referendum postal votes feared lost in Germany

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Thousands of British citizens fear their votes in the EU referendum could have got lost in the post after Germany’s postal service said its workers were confused by the format of pre-paid envelopes sent out to Britons living abroad.

A spokesperson for Germany’s postal service, Deutsche Post, said that while the pre-paid envelopes were valid under the Internal Business Reply Service (IBRS) scheme, many of its employees had rejected the envelopes and told voters to pay postage instead.


More than 100,000 British citizens are registered as living in Germany. The confusion has arisen partly because the European Union has so far failed to regulate the size of standard letters across the continent.

Some post offices in Germany have informed British citizens that they could not accept the A5 envelopes sent out on the IBRS scheme since they did not comply with the German definition of a standard letter, namely no larger than 90x140mm in size and weighing no more than 50g. Royal Mail, by contrast, classifies A5 envelopes as standard letters.

“As IBRS is a product that is seldom posted at our outlets it might happen that a retail partner who is not familiar with IBRS requests postage from the sender,” said the spokesperson. “In this case, the customers concerned can alternatively throw the envelopes in one of our 110,000 letterboxes.” He said that the chances of postal workers handling letters in the post boxes not forwarding the letters to the UK were “extremely small”.

The Electoral Commission said in a statement: “We are aware that a very small number of voters may have been incorrectly informed that the postal service in a handful of locations in Europe cannot accept IBRS items.

“Royal Mail has confirmed that IBRS is accepted across all international posts. It is working closely with postal operators to ensure acceptance of postal votes. Voters are advised that once a ballot is in the postal system (ie if it has been posted into a postbox) it will be processed.”

After British citizens domiciled in France had reported similar problems at post offices, La Poste clarified that the envelopes were in fact valid. “I can confirm that the envelopes used by British citizens for the referendum are indeed taken into account and integrated into our postal system for postage to the UK,” a spokesperson told the English-language newspaper The Connexion.

Belgium’s postal service has also assured British citizens that the envelopes would be forwarded.

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France's postal service La Poste has been forced to inform its branches across the country that they must accept envelopes containing postal votes for the EU referendum. It comes after reports of voters being told to buy stamps.

La Poste has told The Local that it has taken steps to remind staff at branches around the country that the special envelopes used to carry postal votes for the crucial EU referendum are valid and don't need stamps.

The move came after numerous expat voters reported issues on a local level with staff at La Poste apparently telling them the envelopes must have French stamps on them for them to be accepted.

That's despite the envelope clearly saying in both English and French "No stamp required" (Ne Pas Affranchir).

"I can confirm that the reply envelopes used by British citizens for the referendum have been taken into account and are properly integrated into our mail circuit for the UK," La Poste spokeswoman, Perrine Landry told The Local.

"If there is a fault with this at a post office, we are making sure to fix it as soon as possible.

"Furthermore, we are reminding post offices and the mail platforms the management of these envelopes," she said.

In recent days online expat threads have featured cries of complaints from people whose prepaid envelopes for their referendum postal votes have not been recognized by postal workers in France.

"I have tried to explain to (the Electoral Commission) that the problem is France-wide not just our département in 53," wrote Lizzie Hale, who was told that a stamp was "definitely needed".

"Why should we effectively lose our vote for following the voting instructions to the letter?" she added, apparently worried that those who didn't add a stamp would see their votes disappear.

Patrick Bell added: "A friend tried to post her vote but the post office insisted it needed a stamp. She had heard that votes arriving with stamps were disallowed."

Others have reported concern that their vote won't be counted because they simply put the letter in a mailbox without checking with a postal worker first.

Some, such as Carryn Hayward, advised other expats to buy a "poste priorité" stamp for one euro.

She said that she was advised that the envelopes without stamps "will be ignored by La Poste as they will not be paid for them".

"Why take the chance" of not adding a stamp, she asked other expats.

"I have been here 18 years, three of them as a civil servant and know only too well that public servants at local level make their own decisions. And I have seen them park in 'pending' anything they have not seen before to be dealt with at some time in the future. I can't vote but if I could and had taken the time to register I would put a stamp on the envelope to make certain my vote was counted."

The Electoral Commission in the UK said in a statement that it has "arranged for airmail postage to be paid for the return envelopes" during the referendum.

All voters need to do is drop the completed ballot into a postbox, there is no need to bring it in to the workers behind the desk.

The postal votes must be returned by June 23rd, it added.

Similar problems have been reported at local post offices in Belgium and Germany, but The Local's editions in other European countries including Spain and Sweden say that post offices there appear to be accepting the prepaid envelopes.