European Parliament Elections, 6-9 June 2024

Following official invitations from European Union Member States to observe the European Parliament elections scheduled to be held from 6 to 9 June 2024, based on the findings and conclusions of the Needs Assessment Mission and in accordance with its mandate, ODIHR has deployed a Special Election Assessment Mission (SEAM) for these elections.

Press conference livestream: 10 June 2024, 12:00 local time (GMT +2) 

Scope and focus of the mission

The mission is led by Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir and consists of 7 international core team experts from 7 OSCE participating States based in Brussels from 15 May and 10 regional analysts from 10 different participating States deployed in teams of two across the EU member states from 20 May.  

The mission will assess whether the elections are held in line with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation across all 27 EU member states.

In the course of observation, ODIHR SEAM members will visit 20 EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.

In particular, observers will assess a number of specific electoral issues such as:

• practical implementation of the European and national legal framework
• the work of election administration
• voter and candidate registration
• campaign activities, including online, and party and campaign finance and related controls
• social networks presence of selected stakeholders at the European level
• media environment and media coverage of the election
• participation of underrepresented groups, including women, youth, national minorities, and persons with disabilities
• participation of citizen and international observers

The ODIHR SEAM will not carry out systematic or comprehensive observation of the voting, counting and tabulation on election day. Mission members will, however, visit a limited number of polling stations on election days.

The day after the elections, ODIHR will issue a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions at a press conference. A final report on the observation of the entire electoral process will be issued some months after the end of the election process.

Previous Elections

ODIHR has previously observed the 2009 elections to the European Parliament and regularly observes national elections across the European Union member states.