A special commemorative event, initiated by the Serbian 2015 OSCE Chairmanship in Office and hosted by Finland, will take place in Helsinki’s Finlandia Hall, where the original signing took place, on Friday 10 July.
Foreign Ministers of the OSCE Troika – Switzerland (2014), Serbia (present incumbents) and Germany (2016) – will participate, along with deputy ministers from the Organization’s 57 participating States.
A commemorative session in the morning will mark the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, followed by discussions related to European security. The meeting will also pave the way for the OSCE Ministerial Council in Belgrade in December.
The 24th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
The 24th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly brought together nearly 300 parliamentarians from across the OSCE area in Helsinki, Finland on 5-9 July 2015. The theme for this year's Session was "Recalling the Spirit of Helsinki," a reference to the OSCE's founding document, the Helsinki Final Act, which was signed in the Finnish capital in 1975.
The Session culminated in the adoption of the 2015 Helsinki Declaration, which contains the Assembly's wide-ranging policy recommendations for the OSCE and its participating States in the fields of political affairs, economics, the environment and human rights. The Session also featured the presentation of the PA's Helsinki +40 Project Final Report, containing a variety of suggestions for reforming and reinvigorating the OSCE. Parliamentarians adopted a related Resolution on these reform ideas during the Session. OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva presented the Final Report and Resolution at the informal high-level OSCE meeting.
Erich Honecker, First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany signs the Helsinki Final Act, as President of the United States Gerald Ford looks on, 1 August 1975.
The Helsinki Final Act
In a historic demonstration of multilateral consensus, the 1975 Helsinki Final Act saw the heads of 35 States (the NATO countries, the Warsaw Pact countries, neutral and non-aligned States) commit themselves to mutually beneficial dialogue. The drive: to bridge the East-West divide, to move from mere “détente” to actual “rapprochement.” That commitment, in the 1990s, led to the establishment of the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe which later became the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In 2015, the OSCE marks 40 years since the signing of the Helsinki Final Act.
You can download a zipped (300kb) pack of our special logos celebrating 40 years since the signing of the Helsinki Final Act. You can use the logos on social media with the hashtag #Helsinki40.
