In 2007 in its Resolution 1547 the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly opted for a 3% limit, though with the important reservation that this recommendation applied to "well-established democracies". This threshold seems a little low, even if we recognise the important distinction between established democracies and less established ones where the party system is still being created. In the former, a 3 to 5% threshold is probably acceptable, subject to the existence of safeguards, particularly for national minorities, and so long as the implicit threshold is not still higher. In the new democracies, in contrast, higher thresholds might be envisaged to encourage the establishment of simple and effective party systems, with the same precautions and certainly without exceeding 10%, which is already fairly high.