51. In Eman and Sevinger the Court was concerned with the legitimacy under European Union law of a provision of Dutch law which conferred the right to vote in European Parliamentary elections upon Dutch nationals residing in the Netherlands or abroad except in Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. After repeating (para 45) that “in the current state of Community law, the definition of the persons entitled to vote and to stand for election falls within the competence of each Member State in compliance with Community law”, the Court opened a possible role for European law in the instant case by continuing “It must, however, be ascertained whether that law precludes a situation such as that in the main proceedings, in which Netherlands nationals residing in Aruba do not have the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament.” 52. In relation to articles 189 and 190 EC, the Court repeated its words in para 65 of Spain v United Kingdom. It also repeated (para 53) that “Article 19(2) EC … is confined to applying the principle of nondiscrimination on grounds of nationality to that right to vote and stand for election, by stipulating that every citizen of the Union residing in a Member State of which he is not a national is to have the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament in the Member State in which he resides, under the same conditions as nationals of that State.” 53. The Court further noted that the European Court of Human Rights had accepted that the right to vote might be limited by reference to residence. However, the Court found in “the principle of equal treatment or nondiscrimination, which is one of the general principles of Community law” a basis for comparing the position of “a Netherlands national resident in the Netherlands Antilles or Aruba and one residing in a non-member country” (paras 57-58) and for concluding that the Dutch Government had not demonstrated an objective justification for the different treatment of these two persons (para 60). 54. Earlier in its judgment, the Court of Justice had observed that A3P1 did not apply to Aruba; unlike the case with Gibraltar, the European Treaties have no application there, so the European Parliament could not be regarded as the Aruba “legislature” (para 48). But the Court’s decision was based on the fact that the complainants held Dutch nationality and were as such citizens of the Union under article 17(1) EC, and entitled to enjoy the rights conferred by the Treaty under article 17(2). They succeeded under the general European legal principle of nondiscrimination. Page 29