European Centre for Electoral Support
| Formation | 2010 |
|---|---|
| Legal status | Not-for-profit private foundation |
| Purpose | Electoral and democratic support for the facilitation of the cooperation on electoral matters between the European Union, its member states and their partner countries |
| Headquarters | 222 Avenue Louise, 1050, Brussels (Belgium) |
Executive director | Fabio Bargiacchi |
Key people | Monica Frassoni, president;
José Manuel Pinto Teixeira, vice president; Jose Lambiza, treasurer; Members: Fabio Bargiacchi, Eva Palmans, Lino Francescon, Paulo Marques Strategic & Advisory Committee: Joelle Milquet, president; Filiberto Sebregondi, vice-president; Piero Scarpellini, secretary; Members: Erastus Mwencha, Samar Hajar, Didier de Jaeger. |
| Website | www.eces.eu |
The European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) is a not-for-profit, private, non-partisan and independent foundation with its headquarters in the capital of Belgium, Brussels.
It was established at the end of 2010 via the initiative of Fabio Bargiacchi who co-opted Abbot Apollinaire Muholongu Malu Malu and of some other senior electoral and democracy support practitioners (including Monica Frassoni) to facilitate the European Union and its Member States in their electoral cooperation matters with their respective partner countries.
ECES operates globally, however, it has implemented projects and activities mainly in Africa and the Middle East, primarily with funding from the European Union and several EU Member states among which are Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, Ireland, Austria and Luxembourg.
Together with the United Nations Development Programme, International IDEA and the Organisation for the Security and Cooperation in Europe, ECES is today among the 4 most important implementing partners of electoral support funded by the European Union and its member states at global level.
ECES is TRACE and ISO 9001 certified for its financial and quality management systems respectively.
ECES is a member of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office network, the largest European network of 48 independent member not for profit organisations from around 18 European countries working in the area of peace-building, democracy support and conflict prevention.
In 2023 ECES received two awards from the Association of African Electoral Authorities (composed of 45 countries) and the Electoral Commission Forum of the Southern African Development Community (ECF SADC – comprising 15 countries).
The first award was given to ECES's Founder and Executive Director, Fabio Bargiacchi, at the Continental Forum of the African Union held in November 2023 in Benin and delivered by the President of the Electoral Commission of Benin, Mr. Sacca Lafia, representing all the other 45 AAEA member states. The ECF-SADC award was presented to ECES by cardinal Stephen Brislin, Archbishop of Cape Town during the 25th Anniversary of Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC Countries established in 1998.
These two awards were given in recognition of ECES having been “a combatant alongside all the African EMBs to contribute to their democratic and electoral processes” and “to have provided all these years innovative capacity development programmes”