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Events

Sofia Ministerial Council

When

6 December 2004 (All day) - 7 December 2004 (All day)

Where

Sofia
First plenary session of the 12th OSCE Ministerial Council, Sofia, 6 December 2004 (OSCE/Svetoslav Stanchev) Photo details
Although Ministers did not adopt a ministerial declaration in Sofia, they adopted 19 decisions on a range of issues, including fighting terrorism and corruption, tolerance and non-discrimination, and small arms and light weapons.

Two topics dominated the meeting: reform of the OSCE, and the political crisis in Ukraine following the second round of the presidential election.

The Belarusian and Russian Foreign Ministers called for comprehensive reform of the OSCE. The EU Ministers stated that, while they agreed it was necessary for the OSCE to adapt to a changing environment, this should not mean starting over.

In Ukraine, OSCE election observers reported that the election did not meet a considerable number of OSCE commitments. For days, large numbers of demonstrators took to the streets of Kyiv and political tensions grew between supporters of both candidates.

International mediation efforts, which included key OSCE figures, managed to schedule a repeat of the second round for 26 December. After the repeat of round two, Viktor Yushchenko was declared the elected President.