CAIRO: The Chairman of the Delegation of the European Union Commission in Egypt, Ambassador Marc Franco, said on Friday that the European Commission will follow the progress of the Egyptian parliamentary elections scheduled for November 28 through civil society organizations, as well as reporting and analysis, press releases, pointing to the important role played by press in this regard. He also said the EU would give Cairo 300,000 euros to NGOs to help support election monitoring during the voting period. Franco explained that Egypt announced “clearly” that it will not invite international observers to monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections, and the European Union submitted its observations on this matter, as the international observation of any elections in the world is becoming widely recognized. With regard to the means that will be followed by the European Union to follow up the Egyptian elections, Franco pointed out that there will be a follow up of the elections, “as in the case for all the embassies of countries of the world, which prepare reports on their political life in the countries they inhabit.” He added that “we know that civil society organizations will be tasked with monitoring the electoral process and we are following up this matter with great interest to identify the organizations of civil society that are invited to observe and how they work,” pointing out that the EU has allocated to support these organization with 300,000 euros for organizations working in this field “to help them contribute to raise awareness of elections in the society and the importance of voting and also to train its members to observe the elections.” Franco said that the report prepared by the office of the European Union annually on the implementation of the Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighborhood policy, ENP, including Egypt, will include remarks about the electoral process in Egypt this year. BM
