Municipal Elections
The European Union observed the first local elections since the establishment of the independent Republic of Azerbaijan in 1991. After many delays, the municipal elections were held on 12 December 1999.
This was one of the first decisions of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy after the establishment of the EU competence by the Maastricht Treaty. Before 2000, election observations were deployed and formated on an ad hoc political basis.
Precise criteria whether to deploy or not, as well as detailled working structure and methodology were defined in the EC Communication COM2000(199).
