Election Observation and Follow-up Unit

The Directorate-General for External Policies (DG EXPO) is made up of four directorates: Committees, Regions (covering interparliamentary delegations), Resources and Democracy Support.

Staff of DG EXPO form a European team of advisers supporting the European Parliament's President, Members and political bodies in their work on the EU's external policies. Colleagues in DG EXPO provide advice on matters of substance and procedure and liaise with other EU institutions and manage resources. The focus is on legislation, parliamentary oversight of the European Commission and Council, and support for parliamentary democracy. Most of the work is done in Brussels.

Within DG EXPO, the Democracy Support Directorate (Directorate D) provides expert assistance to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and - in particular - to the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG) which provides political oversight of the Directorate's work.

The Election Observation and Follow-up Unit (ELEC) assists the DEG in its oversight of the following areas:

• Identifying countries for election observation for EU Election Observation Missions (EU EOMS) and EP election observation missions;
• Observation of elections and follow-up activities;
• Selecting the parliaments of priority countries and other countries for EP democracy support/capacity building activities within the framework of the Comprehensive Democracy Support Approach.

All priority countries are outside the European Union and include Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Tunisia, Nigeria, Peru and the Pan-African Parliament (PAP).

The Election Observation Unit (ELEC) assists the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group in identifying and selecting EP priority countries for democracy support and for election observation and in defining relevant democracy support activities under the Comprehensive Democracy Support Approach ELEC is responsible for organising and staffing the EP election observation missions and the EP democracy support activities, which include the provision of assistance to members of parliaments and officials of emerging democracies.

ELEC is also the point of contact for the DEG in its efforts to establish closer relations with the European External Action Service (EEAS), other EU institutions and international/regional organisations active in the area of democracy support and election observation.

• Providing expertise and assistance to activities relating to democracy support and election observation for the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group, in particular for the CDSA priority countries;
• Monitoring and providing background materials and research on democracy support, elections, general political developments and other areas relevant to the work of the Election Observation Unit - in particular preparing daily press reviews/summaries and assisting with briefings in advance of election observation missions;
• Participation and providing feedback on seminars, meetings (including EP Committees and Standing Delegations) as well as conferences in the area of election observation and democracy support;
• Contributing to administrative and logistical work of the Unit including the organisation of meetings, roundtables, missions, Jean Monnet Dialogues, etc. (e.g. identifying experts, background documents and logistics for such events);
• Assisting with groups of participants on incoming study visits and conferences and other ad hoc tasks.

• The candidate should be strongly motivated to work on the activities developed by the Election Observation Unit;
• The candidate should have an excellent command of spoken and written English, French and other languages being an advantage;
• The candidate should have strong operational, analytical and interpersonal skills and be ready to work flexibly and to tight deadlines;
• The candidate should ideally possess a previous work experience and/or academic background in the area of elections observation and democracy support.