EU/Irak

The Coun­cil adopt­ed the fol­low­ing conclusions: 

1. “The Coun­cil wel­comes the hold­ing of provin­cial elec­tions in Iraq on 31 Jan­u­ary 2009 and con­grat­u­lates the peo­ple of Iraq for hav­ing suc­cess­ful­ly expressed their demo­c­ra­t­ic will. The elec­tions were well orga­nized and con­duct­ed in a com­pet­i­tive and gen­er­al­ly peace­ful envi­ron­ment with free­dom of expres­sion wide­ly respect­ed across the coun­try. The elec­tions are an impor­tant step towards a con­sol­i­da­tion of the democ­ra­ti­sa­tion process and reconciliation.
2. In this con­text, the Coun­cil com­mends the work by the Inde­pen­dent High Elec­toral Com­mis­sion sup­port­ed by UNAMI, with tech­ni­cal and finan­cial sup­port from the Euro­pean Com­mu­ni­ty, in organ­is­ing these elec­tions with a chal­leng­ing timetable. The EU will exam­ine the pos­si­bil­i­ty of pro­vid­ing sim­i­lar sup­port for future elections.
3. The Coun­cil under­lines the impor­tance of using the out­come of these elec­tions to make fur­ther progress on improv­ing the lives of the Iraqi peo­ple as well as on nation­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in Iraq. In this con­text, it encour­ages the new Provin­cial Coun­cils to respond to the expec­ta­tions of the Iraqi peo­ple by deliv­er­ing inter alia much need­ed basic ser­vices and relat­ed investment.
4. The expe­ri­ence gained from these elec­tions will hope­ful­ly con­tribute to fur­ther con­sol­i­da­tion of the democ­ra­ti­sa­tion process, includ­ing the country’s leg­isla­tive and con­sti­tu­tion­al frame­work, and to lay­ing a sol­id foun­da­tion for Iraq’s next set of elec­tions. The EU, in coop­er­a­tion with its inter­na­tion­al part­ners, will con­tin­ue to sup­port Iraq in its efforts to build a secure, sta­ble, demo­c­ra­t­ic, uni­fied and pros­per­ous coun­try where human rights are respect­ed and reit­er­ates its com­mit­ment to the inde­pen­dence, sov­er­eign­ty, uni­ty and ter­ri­to­r­i­al integri­ty of Iraq.”

Source: Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union