Brussels, 12/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - Catherine Ashton welcomed the “peaceful conduct” of parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan last weekend and considers this to be an “important milestone towards the democratic stabilisation of the country”. The Kyrgyz authorities “have displayed a strong will to bring the country closer to meeting its international commitments on democratic elections”, the EU high representative for foreign affairs states in a press release. Ashton called on the country's various ethnic groups to engage in a process of reconciliation. MEPs who took part in the international election observer mission said, on 12 October, that the election in Kyrgyzstan was “truly the first democratic election in Central Asia”. “The Kyrgyz people clearly demonstrated that they want democracy. It is now high time for the European institutions to upgrade their cooperation and support the political reforms in Kyrgyzstan”, say Mariya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria, Pawel Zalewski of Poland and Joachim Zeller of Germany (all members of the EPP) in a press release. (H.B./transl.jl)