The European Parliament (EP) has said that it did not authorize any representatives to observe or comment on Russia's referendum regarding amendments to the Constitution either in the territory of Russia or in the illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea.

Chair of the EP's Committee on Foreign Affairs David McAllister and Co-chair of the EP's Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group Tomas Tobe made such a statement on Wednesday, July 1.

"The European Parliament has not been invited to observe this electoral process, and consequently will neither comment on the process nor on the results that will be announced afterwards. No individual Member of the European Parliament has been mandated to observe or comment on this electoral process on its behalf," they said.

Therefore, "any Member of the European Parliament who decided to observe this electoral process in the Russian Federation, or in the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula, where the European Union does not and will not recognize the holding of this consultation, has done so on her/his own initiative and should under no circumstances through any statement or action, associate her/his participation with the European Parliament," the MEPs said in the statement.