On November 28-29, 2023, the delegation of the Georgian Election Administration was on an official visit to Strasbourg, France.

The members of the delegation, which included Natia Zaalishvili, the director of the LEPL Center for Electoral Systems Development, Reforms and Training, Maya Gudadze, the head of the Training Program Division of the Training Centre and Tamar Tsertsvadze, the head of the Human Resources Management and Labor Safety Department of the Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC), participated in the conference organized by the Council of Europe.

The main discussion issue of the international event was the improvement of election processes and in this direction the importance of the role of election training centers.

The conference was opened by Claudia Luciani - Director of Human Dignity, Equality and Governance of the Council of Europe, Svetlana Geleva - Ambassador, Permanent Representative of North Macedonia, Chairperson of the Rapporteur Group in the Cabinet of Ministers and Daniel Popescu - Head of the Department of Democratic Governance of the Council of Europe. They drew attention to the declaration adopted by the heads of the member states of the Council of Europe at the summit held in the Reykjavík in May 2023, according to which an essential role is assigned to electoral education, studies and trainings to conduct elections in accordance with international standards.

In consideration of the abovementioned, the two-day conference held in Strasbourg was dedicated to the issue of institutionalization of electoral training centers, their strengthening and the establishment of an international cooperation network in this direction.

At the conference, the participants discussed examples of good practice, among which the successful activity of the LEPL Center for Electoral Systems Development, Reforms and Training operating in Georgia (Training Center) was named.

Natia Zaalishvili, the Director of the Georgian Training Centre, who was invited as an expert by the Council of Europe, introduced the mandate, mission, role of the Training Centre operating in Georgia to the representatives of the election administrations of different countries and shared useful practical experience; she introduced the participants in detail to the civic education programs implemented by the Training Centre, the concept of electoral trainings of the Election Administration and other involved parties, she also spoke about the importance of standardization of election training and the prospects of cooperation between election training centers and election administrations in this regard.

Tamar Tsertsvadze, a member of the Georgian delegation, head of the Human Resources Management and Labor Safety Department of the CEC, discussed the main aspects of digitization of the election process in Georgia at the conference and discussed the information campaign implemented in this direction.

Reports on the importance of the activity of election training centers were presented by representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission, OSCE/ODIHR, the international organization IDEA, election administrations of various countries and experts working on election issues.

On November 28-29, 2023, an international conference organized by the Council of Europe was held with the participation of delegations from 21 countries.