The Council of Europe and e-voting: history and impact of Rec(2004)11

When the Council of Europe started to deal with the subject of electronic voting in 2002, the impact of its work was not foreseeable. What followed, however, was basically a "success story": The Recommendation on legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting (Rec(2004)11), which was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 30 September 2004, has been the most relevant international document and reference regarding e-voting for a decade. Since 2010, the role of the Council of Europe with regard to e-voting has shrunk. Nevertheless various Member States expressed the desire to further review the Recommendation in the forthcoming years. Following an informal experts' meeting in Vienna on 19 December 2013, the Committee of Ministers was confronted with the suggestion to formally update the Recommendation in order to keep up with the latest technical, legal and political developments. The forthcoming Review Meeting on 28 October 2014 may help set the course for future e-voting activities of the Council of Europe.