Higher political stakes for European elections demonstrate clear need to further harmonise and safeguard democratic practices
Democracy was tested on various levels in these elections. National political parties and candidates campaigned increasingly on shared European issues, but with little visibility of their European political families and their lead candidates. Acts of viole nce against politicians in some Member States were a pronounced sign of a growing societal polarisation, compounded by fears of a wider political rift and concerns about foreign interference. Debates increasingly focused on the future composition of the Eu ropean Parliament and decision making in the immediate aftermath of the elections.
Electoral reform and legal innovation efforts remain to be completed and implemented. Against this background, Election Watch.EU assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the electoral process across the Member States, highlighting good practices and areas of progress while identifying key challenges that require attention.
The Election Assessment Mission (EAM) provides a preliminary assessment of equality, inclusion, transparency, accountability, integrity, and resilience in the European elections.
The full version of the Preliminary Statement was issued by the EAM at the press conference in Brussels, 10 June) at which the report was issued by the EAM. A comprehensive final report, including the recommendations will be issued in September.
In February 2024, the Pre-election Asseesment Mission Report was issued in February 2024, including the list of 2019 EP Elections EAM recommendations. Based on the report and its recommendation a comprehensive Election Assessment Mission (EAM) was conducted within the 27 EU Member States (MS), including MEMO 98 experts (as a focal point for Slovakia).
This is the second time that the non-partisan European civil society organisation Election-Watch.EU conducted an independent EAM through its network of 77 international election observers. The main thematic focus of the EAM includes the implementation of EU level regulations and recommendations, voter registration, the participation of mobile EU citizens, the regulation of online campaigning, political party and campaign finance, the media environment, the effectiveness of resilience measures against disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks and hate speech, as well as the inclusion of youth, women and persons with disabilities, among other areas.
Election-Watch.EU is an independent and non-partisan European civil society organisation (CSO) operating through a network of international election observers across the 27 European Union (EU) Member States (MS). The organisational goals are to strengthen European electoral processes through active civil society engagement, to identify gaps, and to promote good practices in the implementation of electoral processes through comparative analysis for inclusive electoral reforms. The overall objective is to enhance the integrity of the European Parliament (EP) elections by focusing on five key dimensions: equality, transparency, accountability, inclusion, and resilience. In 2019, Election-Watch.EU conducted its first Election Assessment Mission focusing on the comparability of electoral calendars, suffrage rights, regulations of campaign finance and social media, as well as on the inclusion of persons with disabilities.
