Brussels, 30/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Council has announced that a European observer team will travel to Algeria for the general elections on 10 May. The observation mission is travelling at the invitation of Algeria and will be deployed from 30 March. It will comprise 120 observers. The mission will be led by Spanish MEP Jose Ignacio Salafranca Sanchez-Neyra (EPP).
“I welcome the confidence shown by the Algerian government which has sent us this invitation”, said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, seeming to lavish reassurance on the Algerian authorities which are generally very touchy about any suggestion of outside interference in their domestic affairs. In previous elections, when observation missions have been announced as a result of individual or European party initiatives, the European institutions have been careful to make clear that they were not involved. The general context in the region (the Arab revolutions) has caused Algiers to relax somewhat. Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said that everything is in place to receive 500 international observers and to enable them to carry out their task in the best conditions possible. He said that the African Union was to send 200 observers, the EU 120, the Arab League 100, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation 20 and the United Nations 10. (FB/transl.rt)