Press release issued by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

VIENNA, 10 July 2010 - The following is a press release issued by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly today. The views expressed in this press release do not necessarily reflect those of the OSCE Chairmanship, nor of all OSCE participating States.

OSCE PA Annual Session ends with adoption of Oslo Declaration and election of new President

OSLO, 10 July 2010 - The 19th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly ended on 10 July, with the adoption of the Oslo Declaration and the election of Petros Efthymiou (Greece) as the Assembly's new President.

Mr. Efthymiou, who was a Vice-President in the Assembly, beat out Senator Consiglio Di Nino (Canada) by 130 votes to 64. The new President succeeds Joao Soares (Portugal) who has served as President for two one-year terms.

The Assembly also elected three new Vice-Presidents, Riccardo Migliori (Italy), Alexander Kozlovskiy (Russia) and Oleh Bilorus (Ukraine), while Isabel Pozuelo (Spain) was re-elected.

The Oslo Declaration, available in English, French and Russian on the OSCE PA website at www.oscepa.org, contains the resolutions adopted during the Annual Session in Oslo, in which 250 parliamentarians participated. The Resolution spanned a wide range of issues, from the situation in Kyrgyzstan to the Parliamentary Assembly's involvement in the Corfu process, the peace process in the Middle East, nuclear security, cybercrime, the situation in the Arctic, the right of return of internally displaced persons, investigative journalism, and to the death penalty.

The three General Committees of the Assembly also elected new officers for the coming year. In the General Committee on Political Affairs and Security, Karl-George Wellmann (Germany) was elected chair, Canan Kalsin, Vice-Chair and Tonino Picula (Croatia) Rapporteur. In the General Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment, Roland Blum (France) Ivor Callely (Ireland) and Serhiy Shevchyuk (Ukraine) were all re-elected, and in the General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Walburga Habsburg Douglas (Sweden), Robert Aderholt (USA), and Matteo Mecacci (Italy) were all re-elected.

Contact:
Klas Bergman, Director of Communications, OSCE PA
Tel. +45 33 37 80 40; Mob. +45 60 10 83 80; email: klas@oscepa.dk