Under international standards, political parties, as associations, are granted a certain level of autonomy in their internal and external functioning. According to this principle, political parties should be free to establish their own organisation and the rules for selecting party leaders and candidates, since this is regarded as integral to the concept of associational autonomy. Moreover, as stressed by the Report on the method of nomination of candidates within political parties, internal democracy is a key element for the functioning of political parties. The principle of democracy applies not only regarding their external functioning, but also in their internal structure and in internal decision making processes.