Vienna, Brussels, 24 March 2019: Following a partnership agreement with the liaison office of the European Parliament in Vienna for joint activities ahead of the European elections 2019 in Austria, Election-Watch.EU has now also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Parliament for activities across Europe. The MoU aims on increasing awareness and participation in the European elections through public outreach activities and to contribute to overall electoral integrity.
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Zagreb, 13 April 2019: Election-Watch.EU was admitted to the Robert Bosch Foundation program “Education on Europe”. Education on Europe is a program for citizenship educators on European issues. The program aims to create, try out and evaluate new approaches to make European integration and EU politics more accessible to learners. It fosters the emergence of concepts to reach young people not usually included in European political thinking.
The program consists [...]
Brussels, 4. April 2019: The European Commission invited Election-Watch.EU to present its election observation plans for the upcoming European Parliament elections at the third meeting of the European cooperation network on elections. Michael Lidauer explained to Election Management Bodies of EU Member States the background, foundations, mission structure and objectives of the upcoming Election-Watch.EU Election Assessment Mission (EAM). The EAM, which is grounded [...]
Election-Watch.EU attended the workshop on social media campaigns organised by the European Parliament in Brussels on 25 March. The European Parliament invited partner organisations among European civil society to help spread the word and to mobilise their communities via social media (#thistimeimvoting campaign).
The workshop focused on the means and use of social media channels to promote European democracy. Alexander Mäkelä, Public Affairs Specialist, presented [...]
Election-Watch.EU conducted a Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) to assess the relevance of citizen-led election observation in the context of the 2019 European elections, taking the electoral processes in European Union (EU) Member States into account. The NAM, led by Armin Rabitsch and Michael Lidauer, was conducted between 28 January and 1 February 2019 in Brussels.
This mission was based on Member States’ international obligations and regional commitments and EU respect [...]
At the invitation of the head of the Institute for Political Science of the University of Vienna, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Müller, Election-Watch.EU (wahlbeobachtung.org) presented and discussed its work and electoral reform proposals at the Vienna Center for Electoral Research (VieCER) on 17 January 2019. The lecture included explanations on the methodology of wahlbeobachtung.org [...]
(c) Photo Polish Commissioner for HR; picture from left: Ilze Brands-Kehris, Alexander Shlyk und Armin Rabitsch
The Polish Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsperson) organised for the second time the Congress for Human Rights on 14/15 December 2018 in Warsaw.
Election-Watch.EU (wahlbeobachtung.org) was invited to the Panel on International Electoral Standards to debate on the importance and possibilities of international and citizen election observation. The event was held in English with Polish synchronous translation. Armin Rabitsch specifically emphasized the importance of trust and responsibility in the conduct of elections, recommended the Austrian example to reduce the voting age to 16 and referred to the double standards of acceptance and accreditation of citizen observers inside and outside the EU. Electoral reform advocacy has to come from outside and from within to strengthen democracies and electoral processes against existing and new challenges. Greater effort in advocacy of legal reforms across European/OSCE countries/participating States to fully acknowledge international as well as citizen election observation, and fully adhere to Article 8 of the OSCE Copenhagen Document is required. While the recent Declaration of Principles (DoP) meeting in London reiterated the work of citizen election observation, and the importance of setting clear standards and adherence to the DoP’s Code of Conduct, OSCE participating States are reluctant to change their legislation and accreditation practice for election observers.2nd Human Rights Congress Warsaw
Workshop: International standards of election monitoring; 15. Dec. 2018, 9.30-11.00
Presentation: Armin Rabitsch, Election-Watch.EU
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On 26 November Election-Watch.EU took part in the conference “EUrope at School”. The event was organized by the network Europe in School, which has been founded by the Representation of the European Commission, the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Research and the Liaison Office of the European Parliament in Austria.
At the conference Election-Watch.EU presented its new project Civic Education for Young Voters – Pupils and Apprentices meet Candidates to the European Parliament [...]
(c) picture WDD
The Warsaw Dialogue on Democracy (WDD) is an annual international conference, organized by the Polish MFA, dedicated to many facets of current democratization processes. This year’s Warsaw Dialogue on Democracy on 22/23 in November 2018 was held under the title Democracy 2.0 and the main scope of the discussion was on the ways modern technologies and social media influence democracies all around the world.
The discussion panel “free elections [...]