You're reading: Teixeira: President of any European country does not choose electoral system

Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira has said that no president of a European country decided what an electoral system should be like.

The diplomat said at a lecture at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy on Wednesday that the new law on parliamentary elections in Ukraine was based on a change in the electoral system personally approved by the president.

"In the process [of discussion] it caused great concern regarding the participation of civil society and all political parties," Teixeira said.

He also quoted Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych as saying that there is no European standard defining the type of an electoral system and that this decision must be made within the country.

"There is no European standard that defines the type of an electoral system – it’s true. But now I will ask you, show me any country among the European states, in which the president himself would intervene in what the electoral system should be like," he said.