tanbul Summit Declaration, followed by the Porto and Maastricht Ministerial Decisions, emphasized the importance of follow-up to ODIHR recommendations. In the context of Supplementary Human Dimension Meetings in 2004 and 2005, OSCE participating States have now entered into a discussion on whether the existing commitments could meaningfully be supplemented through the development of additional commitments, otherwise described as “Copenhagen Plus”. The record of implementation of the Copenhagen Document and post-Copenhagen Declarations and Decisions to date, would indicate that this discussion on additional commitments on democratic elections to supplement existing ones is appropriate. To be consistent with the OSCE’s “process” oriented approach, the starting point for the “Copenhagen Plus” discussion is essentially and fundamentally a re-commitment to the 1990 Copenhagen Document and post-Copenhagen Declarations and Decisions. The “Copenhagen Plus” discussion further provides participating States of the OSCE an opportunity to enrich, reinforce and amplify OSCE election-related commitments, with a focus on principles not expressly stated in the 1990 Copenhagen Document. The Copenhagen Document encompasses a broad range of commitments beyond its paragraphs 6, 7, and 8, which solely address electoral matters. A focus of “Copenhagen Plus” exclusively on electoral matters should not be misinterpreted as a de-emphasis of the broad range of commitments in the Copenhagen Document, as it would be impossible to achieve democratic elections without due respect for the unhindered exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Furthermore, in the OSCE context, the adoption of new documents does not detract from or invalidate existing documents. OSCE documents have always been intended to build on each other, forming the “OSCE acquis” , and commitments undertaken in earlier documents remain as politically binding norms for OSCE participating States. Ministerial Council Decision No. 5/03 of 2 December 2003, recognized “in particular the need for confidence by the electorate in the entire process, for transparency of election procedures, and for accountability on the part of authorities conducting elections...” and tasked the Permanent Council, “drawing on expertise from the ODIHR, to consider the need for additional commitments on elections, supplementing existing ones …”. The ODIHR confirms that three basic principles integral to the democratic election process — transparency, accountability and public confidence — could usefully serve as the basis for additional commitments to supplement the existing ones. The “Copenhagen Plus” discussion should also address perceived and real challenges to transparent and accountable elections, in order to ensure broad public confidence, that have arisen in the context of new voting technologies.   Charter for European Security, Istanbul, para. 25.   This is illustrated by para. 5 of the Copenhagen Document. These para. 5 commitments are important to the realization of the election commitments reflected in paras. 6, 7, and 8 of the Copenhagen Document.   Op. cit., note 2, p. xvii. 84 Common Responsibility: Commitments and Implementation