General Elections
The European Union observed the first free general elections in post-sovietic Ukraine in 1994.
They were also the first democratically contested general elections since the elections of the All russian Constituent Assembly in November 1917.
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).
