On April 13, the European Union delegation to Egypt and the head of Egypt's electoral commission signed an agreement to expedite setting up a complete Elections Observation Mission. Preceded by a somewhat unexpected trip by the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, the agreement has one predictable aim: to observe the imminent presidential elections, the first round of which is due to take place May 26-27. The decision was hardly unanimous, and there were significant voices both in favor of the deployment and critically opposed to it.

The agreement that will govern the setup is due any day now. While it is technically non-binding, it will carry certain moral and political weight. Regardless of the pact, however, the debate will continue within the EU and elsewhere over whether the EU should be conducting an elections mission at all.

There are essentially three camps on this issue. The first is composed of the current Egyptian government and its allies, all of whom are eager for the EU to organize a monitoring operation. The Egyptian authorities want as much international observation as possible for external and international validation of the process. Although the military-backed authorities enjoy substantial public support within the country, Egyptian officials want their standing to be restored in the international community — a standing that has taken quite a beating in the past nine months. Regionally in the Arab world, Egypt is in a strong position, with only Qatar and Tunisia expressing any significant opposition or criticism of the current regime, though the same cannot be said for Western and African countries. Egypt continues to suffer immense criticism in many quarters. Elections that receive a stamp of approval from the EU would back the argument that Egypt is on its way to democracy.

Within the EU’s own institutions, however, there are two strong views. The first, an important, albeit minority viewpoint, is that the EU should not engage in any monitoring of the Egyptian electoral process. The assumptions behind this view are simple: The electoral process is not going to live up to the EU’s standards of "fair" and "free." Various institutions of the EU have closely followed reports of human rights abuses in Egypt, and many within those institutions privately consider such violations appalling.