How does the European Union ensure the correctness of elections with member countries?

Question

During the last referendum in Romania, the existing voting monitoring system did not work, creating doubt about the correctness of voting as this system allowed multiple voting detection:

Several non-governmental organizations asked today the Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă to elaborate an emergency ordinance for the introduction of the Electronic System for Voting Monitoring and Prevention of Illegal Voting (SIMPV) for the Constitutional referendum on the 6th and 7th of October. We have also drew the attention to the many issues raised by the legislation referring to the organization of the referendum and the need to address these shortcomings in Parliament in order to meet international recommendations.

The referendum did not reach the required voter turnout for its validation, but this was still an issue.

I am wondering if the EU demands in any way (treaty, directive or at least a recommendation) for the mandatory usage of electronic systems to prevent voting fraud. Or is this simply considered a strictly domestic issue?

Question: How does the European Union ensure the correctness of elections with member countries?

Answer 1

In general the EU relies on the individual member states to validate election results via their normal constitutional methods, both for domestic elections (where it doesn't make any significant provisions beyond universal suffrage and representative democracy) and for elections to the European parliament. In the latter case, it requires the use of a proportional voting system, that all citizens of other EU countries resident in a member state have the right to vote, and that candidates cannot be members of various other bodies, but makes no other demands.

EU countries do talk to each other regarding the use of technology in elections. However, the use varies between extremes such as Estonia, where a large minority vote online and the Netherlands, where almost the entire system is based on paper. Similarly viewpoints on the role and risks of electronics in elections are varied since on the one hand automation reduces random human errors caused by oversight or boredom, and on the other it introduces network security risks and the opportunity for systematic errors in programming or use.