the elections were hailed as a success and the model of genuine but limited european support for the political process in iraq was established, and has not been substantially deviated from in subsequent landmark events in iraq. thus, eu involvement in the referendum on the constitution consisted of a 20 million euro contribution toward the constitutional process, which again was channeled through un bodies working on the referendum. the successful conduct of the referendum was welcomed by european governments and by the commission. yet direct european involvement was not a feature of the referendum process.