The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) proudly announces the formation of its Advisory Council. From July 2025, this new body will support the EPDE Board and Secretariat in shaping the platform’s strategic development, enhancing programmatic impact, and expanding partnerships that safeguard democratic values in Europe and beyond.

The Advisory Council will play a key consultative role, particularly in guiding advocacy strategies and helping to foster long-term collaborations across sectors. Elected for a term of three years, each council member brings deep expertise and a longstanding commitment to transparent, credible, and inclusive electoral processes.

The newly appointed members of the Advisory Council are:

• Patrick “Pat” Merloe has over 40 years of expertise in promoting citizen empowerment, governmental accountability, and public policy advocacy. He previously served as NDI’s senior associate and director of electoral programs from 1993 to 2022. Throughout his career, he has participated in over 190 international missions to more than 65 countries, focusing on political rights, electoral integrity, and democratic development. 
  
  Pat played a key role in drafting and negotiating the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, which has been endorsed by over 50 international organizations. Additionally, he facilitated the process that resulted in the Declaration of Global Principles for nonpartisan election monitoring by citizen organizations, which was promulgated by the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM) and endorsed by over 290 organizations from more than 85 countries.
   
• Nacho Sánchez Amor has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Subcommittee on Human Rights, the Delegation to the EU-Türkiye Joint Parliamentary Committee, and the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly. 
  
  Nacho is actively involved in the EP´s democracy support and election observation efforts. Member of the EP’s Democracy and Election Group (DEG), he has been the leading member for the organization of the DoP Implementation Meeting of 2022 and internal reflection processes on election observation. He has an extensive experience in international policy, human rights and election observation -having conducted more than 25 EU, EP and ODIHR election observation missions, several of them as chief observer.
   
• Marietje Schaake is currently a non-resident fellow at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center and Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Marietje is a former Dutch MEP (2009-2019, ALDE) focusing on trade, foreign affairs, and cyber security policies. She served as Advisor on Artificial Intelligence to UN’s Secretary General Guterres and as independent special advisor to the executive vice-president of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager.

“Establishing the Advisory Council is a crucial step to deepen EPDE’s impact and foresight in protecting democratic processes,” said Stefanie Schiffer, Chair of the Board of EPDE. “Pat, Nacho, and Marietje will bring extensive and complementary expertise in democratic development, election observation, and digital policy. We are very grateful to count on their guidance at a time when hybrid threats to democracy are increasingly complex and interconnected.”

More information about the EPDE’s Advisory Council can be found on our website.

The Advisory Council will convene regularly and collaborate closely with the EPDE Board to ensure EPDE’s continued relevance, impact, and international synergies to promote election integrity.

For more information, please contact:

Stefanie Schiffer
Chair of Board
European Elections for Democratic Elections (EPDE)
schiffer@european-exchange.org