From October 21 through October 23, the fifth session of Forum for the Future of Democracy was held in Kyiv. The session was dedicated to the subject entitled "Electoral systems: strengthening democracy in the 21st century".

The aim of this event was creation of mutual approach between the members of the Council of Europe (COE) in creating ruling principles and ways to achieve a universal standards in the formation of election systems, based on principles of equality, supremacy of law and democracy.

President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko attended the opening ceremony of the forum and gave greeting speech to forum participants.

In his speech the President noted that changes in our country happened based on the European countries' experience. At the same time, Ukraine obtains its own experience, which is essential and helpful for all European societies. Victor Yushchenko emphasized that real liberty of speech was established in Ukraine and democratic elections became a norm for the Ukrainian society. He also emphasized that one of the reasons why democratic way of thinking was possible in Ukraine was because of its collaboration with the Council of Europe. The president also mentioned that Ukraine really appreciates the help of COE in the reformation of election laws.

The leader of Ukraine first stressed that Ukrainian's participation in the Council of Europe is one of Ukraine's persistent efforts of bringing Ukrainian laws into accordance with the European standards and the norms of international laws. In the president's opinion, the main key to achieve stabilized democracy lies in the fundamental modernization of the government and political systems through changes in the power structure and election system of Ukraine.

Among main participants of the Forum were: the chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, The Slovenian Foreign Minister, Samuel Žbogar; newly elected Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Lluis Maria de Puig; President of the Venice Commission Jan Erik Helgesen and others. More then 400 representatives from governments, parliaments and science circles of COE nations and many representatives of non-government organizations participated in the Forum.

Within this Forum a "Code of Good practice for Civil Participation in the Decision-Making Process" was presented.

Holding the Forum in Ukraine became a contribution of our country to the 60 years anniversary of COE establishment.

This year's Forum can be considered as a part of permanent process of information and experience exchange, and it is also an important stage for the purposes of COE democracy standards' versatility in the election systems spheres.

The results of Kyiv Forum shall encourage the commencement of work in all institutions of COE on the parliament and government levels and it shall lead to the creation of important recommendations about expansion of the best European practices and about optimizing their efficiency.

The forum's format and contents were based on the superior European level, which was displayed in the concluding document of this event.

Efforts and discussions from Kyiv Session of COE Forum received wide coverage of the mass media. Work results of Forum 2009 will become significant contribution for strengthening European norms and standards in election sphere.

On the COE official web-site you can find materials concerning this Forum.

http://www.coe.int/t/dgap/democracy/.