Source: European Parliament
The organisation and conduct of elections are the competence and responsibility of the Member States, in accordance with their national constitutional rules and legislation, as well as their international obligations and applicable EU law. National authorities and courts are primarily responsible for ensuring compliance with the applicable rules.
The Commission has no competence to intervene in the organisation and conduct of elections.
The Commission supports Member States on electoral matters, mainly through the framework of the European cooperation network on elections[1]. This brings together national authorities with relevant competence and facilitates the exchanges of information and best practices.
The Commission is also working with Member States to support the application of EU law provisions relevant in national electoral contexts, such as those in the Digital Services Act[2], the regulation 2024/900 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising[3] (which will apply in full from October 2025), the General Data Protection Regulation[4] and the Artificial Intelligence Act[5].
In 2023, the Commission issued the recommendation on inclusive and resilient electoral processes in the EU[6] aiming to promote high democratic standards for elections in the EU, supporting high turnout, inclusive participation, easy and equal exercise of electoral rights and resilient electoral processes.
- [1] https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/democracy-eu-citizenship-anti-corruption/democracy-and-electoral-rights/european-cooperation-network-elections_en
- [2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32022R2065. In 2024, the Commission issued Guidelines for providers of Very Large Online Platforms and Very Large Online Search Engines on the mitigation of systemic risks for electoral processes, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52024XC03014&qid=1714466886277
- [3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/900/oj/eng
- [4] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj/eng
- [5] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng
- [6] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reco/2023/2829/oj/eng