OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Winter Meeting

The escalating crisis in and around Ukraine and the OSCE’s continuing efforts to help resolve it will be the focus of parliamentary debate and keynote presentations at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Winter Meeting, held on 18-20 February at the Hofburg Congress Centre in Vienna.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic will address nearly 250 parliamentarians from more than 50 OSCE participating States and take questions during the meeting’s opening plenary on 19 February at 12:00 local time. 

Addresses by OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) and Austrian National Council President Doris Bures will also feature at the plenary, which will be live-streamed on oscepa.org.

On 20 February at 13:30 local time, parliamentarians will hold a special debate to consider the OSCE’s response to the crisis in and around Ukraine. The session will begin with presentations by Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), and Ambassador Adam Kobieracki, Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre, who will discuss the Organization’s current initiatives aimed at facilitating dialogue and a diplomatic resolution to the crisis. The debate will also be live-streamed on the OSCE PA homepage.

Meetings of the PA’s three main Committees – Political Affairs and Security; Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment; and Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions – will also take place in Vienna. 

This year’s Winter Meeting will also host the OSCE PA’s annual Mediterranean Forum.

FOR JOURNALISTS: Members of the press are invited to attend the Winter Meeting and should send their full name, media affiliation and contact details to richard@oscepa.dk.