EPD members the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES), the French Media Cooperation Agency (CFI), One World UK, and EPD’s former member Osservatorio di Pavia, are part of the consortium to which the European Commission has awarded the Electoral Observation Democracy Support (EODS) contract.
EODS aims to:
- contribute to the consolidation of a consistent methodology for EU Election Observation Missions (EOMs), in line with relevant international and regional standards for democratic elections;
- strengthen EU observers capabilities, through development of a common EU approach ;
- strengthen the election observation capacity and methodology of regional organisations and networks.
Among others, the main activities of EODS II project will be:
- To further develop methodological and training tools;
- To address new challenges for EU EOM methodology;
- To carry out studies/researches on election topics and methodological issues;
- To ensure targeted briefings for EU EOMs Core Teams and for potential Chief Observers (COs) and for EU Delegation officers;
- To provide support/advise mechanism to EU EOMs;
- To provide assistance and advice as far as the communication, outreach, and visibility strategy for EU EOMs are concerned;
- To establish regular and close cooperation with other international or regional organisations and networks.
The 3 EODS’ experts provided by ECES and Osservatorio di Pavia are the Project Director – Konrad Olszewski; the Training Coordinator – Giovanna Maiola; and the Regional Coordinator – Eva Palmans. All of them have long-standing and consolidated experience in elections, and will ensure a complementary pool of know-how for an holistic and multifaceted project implementation.
The lead technical backstopping of the project’s 3 years will be provided by ECES, for which the lead technical advisor is Fabio Bargiacchi (executive director of ECES) supported by Vera Figuira Lourenco (ECES Senior Electoral Advisor).
This contract is an additional recognition of ECES’ extensive work in the field of electoral support since its creation in 2011.
