EU Focal Point Meeting on Election Observation in Berlin

On 10 and 11 November, more than 25 so-called focal points - contact persons for election observation - from all over Europe met in Berlin. In most cases, the topic and thus also the recruitment and deployment of personnel for missions is anchored in government institutions. The Focal Points are a strong network and a platform for knowledge exchange on the topic of election observation. ZIF had last hosted the meeting in 2013 and was now able to invite participants to Berlin for the second time - the meeting was held in Berlin for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. For two days, the experts exchanged their experiences in election observation in different formats. The differences between the various national approaches and structures of election observation were discussed, as well as the current challenges with regard to secondment and the deployment of election observers. We thank all participants for their contributions and the good cooperation. This autumn and winter, ZIF will focus on the topic of election observation with a number of different event formats for different target groups.