VZCZCXRO7845
OO RUEHIK
DE RUEHBS #1527 3171903
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 131903Z NOV 09
FM USEU BRUSSELS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY

UNCLAS BRUSSELS 001527 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM PREL EUN IZ
SUBJECT: COUNCIL APPROVAL LIKELY FOR EUROPEAN COMMISSION 
PROPOSAL TO SEND ELECTION EXPERTS FOR IRAQI NATIONAL 
ELECTIONS 
 
REF: STATE 114282 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  According to the European Commission (EC) desk 
officer for Iraq, Julita Bas, the EC will recommend sending 
an "EU Enhanced Electoral Experts" mission (EEM) to Iraq for 
the January 2010 national elections, but Council (i.e., all 
Member States) approval will be necessary for the mission to 
go forward.  In a meeting November 6 with USEU Political and 
Econ counselors, Bas said that the proposal for the January 
mission is that it be similar to the formula the EC used for 
monitoring previous regional elections in Iraq.  It would not 
be a full-fledged EU election observing mission, which the EU 
considers a term of art for a full-scale mission, deployed 
far enough in advance and with adequate staffing, with access 
to election sites, and security to enable the mission to make 
a public statement.  Bas said the EC does not believe 
security in Iraq is adequate to permit the functioning of a 
full-scale mission and to allow for full access to all voting 
sites, and expects its security advance mission to formalize 
that conclusion. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Bas noted that for the regional elections in 
January 2009, the EC EEM consisted of two experts who had a 
monitoring role, who traveled to Iraq and met with others 
either participating in the elections or observing them, and 
who then prepared an in-house (rather than public) report on 
their observations.   She said that for the upcoming January 
2010 national elections, the EU "will field the best possible 
formula and deliver as much as possible," given the security 
and other limitations.  The mission will likely, she said, 
consist of six to eight experts.  They would be traveling to 
Iraq in the near future to assess the situation and decide 
the parameters of their mission.   She said that nothing 
specific had been decided, but that the EEM would be enhanced 
by the added presence of EU diplomats already in Iraq.  As 
with the regional elections, there would be no public 
statement or final report assessing the overall conduct of 
the elections. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  There is also no decision on a European Parliament 
(EP) component.  In a meeting with USEU, Heidi Hautala, the 
Chairwoman of the Human Rights Subcommittee of the EP's 
Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET), told USEU officers that the 
parliament generally waited until the EC had determined the 
parameters of an election mission, and that generally the EP 
is then folded into a EC mission.  Frequently, EU missions 
are actually headed by a sitting or former EP member (as with 
the observer mission for the August Afghanistan elections). 
She would not speculate as to whether the EP would seek a 
separate presence if there is not an appropriate EU mission 
in which they could participate.  At a November 11 hearing at 
the EP, members of the EP delegation for relations with Iraq 
discussed the possibility of such a mission with a Commission 
representative. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  The final decision to approve the Mission will 
come from the Council, which means that all 27 member states 
must agree.  A diplomat at the Spanish mission (which will 
hold the presidency at the time of the elections) told us the 
mission would likely be approved.  An Italian diplomat 
involved in working group discussions also said there should 
be no problem with approval, noting that the Council had 
urged the Commission to have as strong a presence as 
possible. 
Murray 
.