News and press releases

ST. PETERSBURG, 20 May 2016 – Addressing the plenary session of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS) in St. Petersburg today, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) stressed the importance of building bridges between nations and between international inter-parliamentary organizations, welcoming the focus of the IPA CIS session on economic and environmental challenges...

CALAIS, 11 May 2016 – The refugee and migrant crisis is impacting all of Europe with implications in humanitarian, economic and security dimensions, and therefore requires a continent-wide, multidimensional response, said parliamentarians at the conclusion of a field visit to Calais today...

COPENHAGEN, 9 May 2016 – Members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s newly formed Ad Hoc Committee on Migration will be in Calais, France, this week to see the conditions for refugees and migrants seeking shelter in encampments there. The visit will serve as a fact-finding mission to enable the parliamentarians to gain a first-hand impression of conditions and to develop policy recommendations to improve the collective response to the refugee and migrant crisis...

COPENHAGEN, 29 April 2016 – Kent Harstedt (MP, Sweden), Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Chair of its Ad Hoc Working Group on Belarus, had a mixed reaction to the statement of Chairwoman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Lidia Yermoshina following the press conference with the head of state on 27 April...

A decision Tuesday by the top court in Russian-occupied Crimea to ban the Crimean Tatars’ governing body indicates a new level of stigmatization of the Tatar community and should be reversed, said OSCE Parliamentary Assembly human rights chair Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal) today...

COPENHAGEN, 22 April 2016 – The signing of the historic Paris Climate Agreement by world leaders in New York today is a fitting tribute to the global celebration of Earth Day and a reminder of the work that remains to be done in countering global warming, said the leaders of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s economic and environmental committee, Nilza Sena (MP, Portugal) and Marietta Tidei (MP, Italy), today...

LEINSWEILER, 17 April 2016 – Members of Parliament from 15 countries gathered in the French-German border region on 16 and 17 April to consider parliamentary contributions to OSCE efforts in addressing conflicts. Some 25 parliamentarians, including from several countries impacted by protracted conflicts, heard presentations from experts on reconciliation processes particularly in the Saar-Lor-Lux and Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino regions...