Council of Europe head says Greece vote falls below standards

The head of a key European institution has said that Sunday's referendum in Greece falls below acceptable international standards for such plebiscites.

Thorbjorn Jagland, who is secretary general of the Council of Europe, said the referendum had been called too quickly, with insufficient time for debate that would assist voters in making up their minds, and that the question being posed was unclear.

When asked about the referendum, Mr Jagland said that a ballot “called on such a short notice” was “a major problem”, and that the question being asked was “not very clear”.

The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, surprised Greece and the rest of the euro zone last Friday by announcing a referendum.

On the ballot paper, Greek voters are asked whether they accept the plan, submitted on June 25th, by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, at the eurogroup.

The Greek government is calling for a No vote in the referendum.

However, s ince calling the referendum, Greece has requested a bailout extension and has submitted new proposals to the eurogroup.

The group is due to meet tonight but both the new Greek proposals and whatever might emerge from tonight’s meeting are not part of the question being put to Greek voters.

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe (COE) predates the EU. It was founded in 1949 and is based in Strasbourg, France. It has a parliamentary chamber and secretariat.

It was founded by 10 European states: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the Republic.

Greece and Turkey joined three months later.

The European Coal and Steel Community, the embryonic EU, was founded in 1952 and remains a separate institution. Greece joined the EU in January 1981.

The COE has 47 member states and concerns itself with human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

A spokesman for the council said that Mr Jagland was not seeking to interfere in the referendum.

“We are not prejudging the outcome of the referendum,” spokesman Daniel Holtgen said.

Mr Holtgen said that, according to the council’s electoral guidelines, international observers should be in place to monitor how an election is conducted.

“This isn’t possible [given the short notice] and the secretary general confirmed that the COE had not been asked to observe,” he said.