The Democratic Support and Electoral Coordination Group of the European Parliament has sanctioned the MEP of Izquierda Unida, Manu Pineda, and that of Podemos, Idoia Villanueva, for breaking the rules of electoral missions in the elections in Ecuador by presenting themselves as international observers on the sidelines of the Eurochamber.

According to a letter from the co-presidents of the group in the European Parliament for support for democracy and electoral coordination, to which Europa Press had access, the behavior of both violates the rules of the European Parliament and international standards and the regulations apply to them regarding participation in observation missions.

In the case of Pineda, he is excluded until the end of 2021 from participating in any parliamentary observation delegation and he is advised that if he is involved in a similar situation, he will be suspended for the rest of the legislature. The IU MEP traveled to Venezuela last December in the electoral context and in February served as an observer and issued judgments on the elections in Ecuador.

For its part, the European Parliament reprimands Villanueva, secretary of Internacional de Podemos, for giving interviews to Ecuadorian television in relation to an international mission in the country in those elections and for appearing as an “international observer” during her speech. In this sense, she has been warned that another similar situation will imply an exclusion from future missions.

The letter from the co-chairs David McAllister and Tomas Tobé emphasizes that the code of conduct for the members of the observation missions, which both Spanish MEPs broke, guarantees that the activities in support of democracy carried out by the European Parliament are applied impartially.

In February they already warned in another letter that “no” MEP had received the mandate to observe or comment on the electoral process in Ecuador “on behalf of the European Parliament” and indicated that if anyone decided to travel “he will do so in his own capacity.”

Source: dpa

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