Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-07-Speech-3-136"
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"en.20080507.15.3-136"2
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". −
Mr President, fifteen years after the first election observation mission to Russia, and eight years after the first communication by the Commission on this subject, what assessment can we make of election observations? Well, firstly a positive one. The aim of this report, which was written jointly and in complete harmony with Mr Salafranca, was to highlight the successes achieved: the growing professionalism of the election observation missions, the creation of a body of experienced observers within the EU – successes that have meant that the budget of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights is now close to 25% – and above all, the fortunate combination of two missions, each led by MEPs: that of the EU, which is more technical and long term, and that of Parliament, which is shorter and more political.
We need to keep forging ahead, however. The main recommendations of this report are, in the first place, to open up the missions to ACP, EUROLAT and EMPA members, but very cautiously. Care must be taken not to destroy professionalism and to maintain a European stamp on the missions. Secondly, to keep the budget allocation at around 25% for the European Instrument for Human Rights and Democracy, draw up an annual report evaluating the year’s missions – that is extremely important indeed –, look into the security of computerised elections – a new challenge for election observers – and above all, work much more on follow-up. It is in the follow-up that the difficulty lies, and it is hard for elections to be the genuine lever for democracy that they should be. The report describes a number of avenues for follow-up, but I will only mention political follow-up here, and here I am talking mainly to the Council. It is unacceptable that, when representatives or presidents get themselves elected on a fraudulent basis, European Union policies towards them go on as if nothing had happened. Business as usual. It is also unthinkable – and disastrous – that when representatives are elected on a democratic basis, they do not have the right to the respect and legitimacy that their election confers. We have had unfortunate examples in the past that have led to tragic situations. I do not want to make this a textbook case. This report is consensus-based and not polemical, and Europe has in this an excellent instrument. It should not deny itself that."@en1
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