EPDE members from Armenia, Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine joined policymakers, representatives of election management bodies, and national ministries at the high-level conference “Towards Trusted and Inclusive Electoral Processes: The Role of Observers” in Paris on 28-29 April 2026 to address challenges to election observation and contribute to a coherent international framework for election observation in all Council of Europe member states. The conference was organized jointly by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, and the Venice Commission.

EPDE members drew on direct field experience to share expertise and concrete obstacles on loopholes in legal frameworks, insufficient security protocols, and operational challenges, such as restricted access to remote areas, and a lack of transparency around digital tools used in electoral processes.

EPDE Chair of the Board Stefanie Schiffer warned of coordinated efforts by authoritarian actors to co-opt election management bodies worldwide, engaging them in fake observation efforts to lend false legitimacy to fraudulent elections. However, the case of PACE itself, which was a laboratory for fake election observation until 2018, has successfully proven that internal reform and legal investigation combined can protect institutions from being undermined and captured.

Zofia Lutkiewicz (Political Accountability Foundation, Poland; Board member of EPDE and the GNDEM) highlighted that election management bodies should verify that observer organizations have proper methodologies in place and provide transparency on their financing and organizational independence.

Nicolae Panfil (Promo-LEX Association, Moldova) shared how the electoral law in Moldova was amended shortly before the elections requiring observers to disclose methodology and funding sources. The amendment of the law proved successful in preventing fake election observation missions in Moldova.

The Paris conference set out to review existing Council of Europe standards, and open a discussion on whether stronger, potentially binding instruments are needed to guarantee consistent protection across member states.

Together with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, and the Venice Commission, the high-level conference approved the Paris Call to Action, shaped in part by contributions from many of our members, urging Council of Europe member states to:

• Recognize that electoral observation, both domestic and international, plays an important role in enhancing the transparency and integrity of electoral processes, thereby reinforcing public trust in democracy, and that election observers act both as watchdogs of democratic processes and human rights defenders;
• Provide a strong legislative framework for domestic observation with a view to facilitating the work of the observers and ensuring their free movement and unhindered access to polling stations, as well as observers’ security;
• Systematically invite international election observation missions and facilitate their work by providing a framework that ensures access and security for international observers;
• Ensure meaningful and timely follow-up to the findings and conclusions of international election observation missions;
• Support the adoption of a specific Council of Europe instrument to guarantee, protect and promote electoral observation.

EPDE welcomes this level of institutional attention. It is high time for all Council of Europe member states to recognize election observation as essential to sustaining and strengthening democratic elections and to do more to protect the integrity of their institutions from foreign co-optation.

📘 Further reading:

• Paris Call to Action: Towards Trusted and Inclusive Electoral Processes: The Role of Observers, Paris, 28-29 April
• Towards Trusted and Inclusive Electoral Processes: The Role of Observers, Conference, Paris, 28-29 April
• Kremlin’s new fake electoral observation ecosystem: From domestic mimicry to global scaling, Russian Election Monitor