Since its foundation, ACEEEO has aimed to foster the development of open and democratic election systems in our region - pursuant to its mission stipulated in the Charter - and to provide a non-partisan and politically neutral forum for the exchange of information among election officials and experts.

With this aim in mind we have put themes on the agenda of the annual conferences that were related to the current tasks and problems of the given period. For example, having experienced a decrease in electoral activity also in our region, in 1999 we examined what the reasons for this unfavourable trend could be, and what could be done to enhance voter participation. Last year we examined the role of information science in the electoral process, primarily in respect of the ways modern technology can contribute to fostering the fairness and transparency of elections.

Not only experts from ACEEEO member countries, but also delegates of our partner organisations and experts invited from other countries were offered the opportunity to tell their experience. Gathering information from various sources and comparing often differing experience provide great help for the experts of our member countries in solving their own problems. In order to promote it even more effectively, at the latest conference in Warsaw, we issued a statement to spread the solutions we had deemed proper to be adopted, and we are planning to conclude the discussion of each topic similarly also in the future.

ACEEEO considers it its major task to collect and make election-related documents available for anybody interested. For this reason, it has established a Documentation Centre, where plenty of valuable materials have been gathered for the last ten years (laws, election results, scientific analyses, practical instructions, etc.). With the aim of both making them publicly available and providing those interested with current information ACEEEO maintains a web site on the Internet (wvw.aceeeo.com). Here the most important information is accessible on the Association and the member countries and we give a survey of our partners, of the region's current electoral events (election calendar), the conferences already held or planned and publish election-related documents and provide direct access (link) to the web sites of our member organisations and partners.

Through our experts, we participate in the activities that are aimed at drawing up election analyses and gathering and publishing information. For example, we have analysed the rules and practices governing campaign financing in several countries on commission from the Hungarian Ministry of Interior Central Data Processing, Registration and Election Office and summarised the general conclusions in a study. Also in cooperation with the above-mentioned office and IFES, one of our main supporters, we have compiled a five-language election dictionary. In the future we are intending to expand it and make it accessible to the general public on the Internet. We have participated in creating an election database - in cooperation with the University of Essex and IFES -, the material of which can be accessed via the Internet and contains the election laws and election results of the past few years of Central and Eastern European countries.

ACEEEO considers it its major task to actively participate in the elections of the region. For the last ten years our observers represented our Association at the majority of the general elections held in the countries of our region. Traditionally we cooperate with OSCE/ODIHR in this work, and - since the Kosovar elections of 2000 - with the Council of Europe. For the past five years we have organised sending several hundred election experts to the elections held in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. We regularly publish the reports of observers and experts on the Internet. In the interest of increasing the efficiency of these activities, we have started to build up a database that will contain the particulars of all the election experts of all our member countries that can be mobilised in the event of international observation.

We feel obliged to contribute - with our humble means - to creating peace in the Balkan region and to the advancement of the democratisation process. For this reason - by sending experts and providing consultation - we helped in establishing the Association of Election Officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in educating local election experts in Kosovo. At our latest conference a resolution was adopted that the organisations of the member countries of the Balkan region would form a sub-group to tackle their specific problems.

Our Association is pursuing its activities in accordance with the strategic plan approved last year. In this we defined our objectives to be reached in the coming period and our major tasks. We are providing information on them in the following chapter.