sponsibility that participating States have not shared equally during the last decade of the ­ODIHR’s long-term election observation efforts. 126. In recent years, a practice has emerged that avoids the over-representation of observers of any given participating State. In order to ensure that missions have a reasonably diverse composition, the ODIHR has advised participating States that it will only accept up to 10 per cent of the total number of requested observers from any one participating State. The ­ODIHR has thus been striving to diversify the composition of the body of its long- and short-term observers. As a result, the number of participating States seconding observers to EOMs has been increasing. On average, EOMs so far deployed in 2006 have included observers from over 40 countries, thus continuing a positive trend, given the figures for 2005 (34), 2004 (35), and 2003 (29). 127. In addition, the ODIHR assists a number of governments in the deployment of observers to OSCE observation missions through a Fund for Enhancing the Diversification of Election Observation Missions. This fund comprises voluntary contributions from OSCE States and is designed to broaden the composition of EOMs, hence benefiting those countries that do not regularly second observers. Since its establishment in 2001, the ODIHR has financed the participation of 839 short-term and 129 long-term observers.78 128. In recent years, the ODIHR has supported national training initiatives and has stressed the importance of such efforts. In particular, it has presented an extra-budgetary project on election observer training to assist States to train election observers and to enhance the capacity of international observers taking part in ODIHR election observation missions. The project will initially focus on training short-term observers and will be implemented in cooperation with the OSCE Academy in Bishkek.79 129. While the OSCE recognizes six official languages for its intergovernmental level, English has emerged as the working language of the Organization and thus also of the ODIHR and the ODIHR’s operational activities, including EOMs. 80 This language regime certainly does not exclude the use of any other language; often, host countries have underlined the importance of local languages. In any case, the ODIHR strives to recruit experts with knowledge of the language of, or broadly used in, the country they work in. It does, however, not intend to use language as a criterion that could exclude a large pool of other available expertise. 130. With regard to CIS countries, further efforts are being undertaken to integrate observers with an insufficient working knowledge of English. In all cases, observers are deployed in international teams of two persons that are assigned interpreters for local languages. In 78  Though supported so far by only 11 participating States and the European Commission, the fund has considerably enhanced representation of election observers from the 20 States that are currently eligible: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Uzbekistan, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine. A list of all countries that have benefited from the fund is annexed to this report. 79  By the end of 2006, the ODIHR Elections Department will have conducted training for about 50 short-term observers from the 20 participating States eligible for the diversification fund. In 2007, two training sessions will be conducted. The project will be implemented in co-operation with the OSCE Secretariat’s Training Section. Support for national training efforts will continue. 80  The Supplementary Document to give effect to certain provisions contained in the Charter of Paris for a New Europe (1990) stipulates that the Director of each institution will determine its working arrangements (Part H, point 8). 42 Common Responsibility: Commitments and Implementation