Roberto Montella begins second five-year term as Secretary General of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

COPENHAGEN, 5 January 2021 – Roberto Montella of Italy has begun a second five-year term as Secretary General of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, following his re-election by the Assembly’s Standing Committee at the 2019 Luxembourg Annual Session. In a year-end letter to all 323 members of the OSCE PA, he expressed gratitude for their trust and support, and offered an assessment of where the Assembly stands since he first took over as Secretary General five years ago.

“Since 2016, our region – the whole northern hemisphere from Vancouver to Vladivostok – witnessed a number of important developments which directly affected the work of the OSCE and our Parliamentary Assembly,” he wrote. Highlighting trends such as the conflict in eastern Ukraine, increased tensions in South Caucasus, the refugee and migrant crisis, rising nationalism, terrorism, undermined public trust in democratic systems, deterioration of human rights, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Montella pointed out that the PA has striven to be proactive and effective in its responses.

“We have always tried to react promptly trying to ask ourselves some fundamental questions such as ‘how should we react?’, ‘how can we contribute?’, in each of these challenging circumstances, and ‘where is the specific added value of parliamentarians and of the Parliamentary Assembly representing more than one billion people?’, Montella wrote.

In this regard, he pointed to initiatives undertaken to adapt the Assembly’s work through ad hoc committees and targeted activities, and to establish better relations with the OSCE’s government representatives in Vienna and its executive structures. “With regular co-ordination at all levels on programmatic activities, positions and statements, truly providing a distinct parliamentary added value in the framework of the wider ‘OSCE family’ product,” Montella said, “we made the Parliamentary Assembly a politically lively and dynamic body, always engaged.”

Multilateralism must be reinforced, the Secretary General stressed, urging OSCE parliamentarians to invest in it. “With our humble work, we stand here to facilitate this and support you,” Montella wrote. He also noted that the Assembly has the assets to think strategically and build long-term approaches.

With a background working in conflict prevention, resolution and institution-building, in particular in OSCE missions in South East Europe, Montella has long been an advocate for the field work of the Organization and for strengthening links between the Assembly and the OSCE’s governmental side, as well as with other international organizations.

Before his election as Secretary General, Montella held various posts within the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Secretariat, including as Director of Presidential Administration, and worked at OSCE field missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Serbia and Montenegro. He has served as Co-ordinator of Long-Term Election Observers for the Carter Center in Lebanon, as political advisor to an Italian senator and PACE Vice-President, and also has campaign-related and corporate experience. In addition to his native Italian and French, Montella is fluent in English and Serbian.

The Secretary General holds general responsibility for managing the affairs of the OSCE PA; implementing the decisions of the Bureau, the Standing Committee and the Assembly; and overseeing the Secretariat’s offices in Copenhagen and Vienna. Along with the Treasurer, he is responsible for the management of the Assembly's financial resources.

The Secretary General’s mandate is for five years and may be renewed twice.

Montella succeeded the Assembly’s first Secretary General, Spencer Oliver of the United States, as OSCE PA Secretary General in January 2016, following a vote at the 2015 Annual Session in Helsinki.