News and press releases

BRUSSELS, 10 June 2024 – The European parliamentary elections were competitive and offered voters a wide choice of genuine political alternatives, but differing practices for voter and candidate registration created unequal conditions and there were concerns about growing political polarization and disinformation, international observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said in a statement today.

From 3 to 7 June 2024, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) in close co-operation with the OSCE Presence in Albania, organized a training of trainers course on identifying forged documents and impostors at border crossing points in Tirana, Albania. The course brought together five officers, two women and three men, from the Albanian State Police and the Albanian Border Police.

On 4-6 June 2024, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), organized a training course in Budva, Montenegro, aimed at equipping national officials with critical skills to counter the financing of terrorism.

Environmental crime is a growing challenge that requires joint action, improved co-ordination amongst state institutions and NGOs, and full awareness among private sector, the media and citizens. The OSCE Mission to Montenegro will support national stakeholders to jointly address this issue, as formation of joint working groups for environmental crime investigations has been agreed. These were conclusions from a roundtable organized by the Mission on 5 June to coincide with World Environment Day.

PRISHTINË/PRIŠTINA, 5 June 2024 – The OSCE Mission launched the report “From Paper to Practice- Evaluating the Effectiveness of Judicial Response to serious Organized Crime and Corruption in the Western Balkans”- an analysis of the justice system in Kosovo, as part of a wider regional OSCE project carried out with EU financial support.

In a significant step towards gender equality and the elimination of violence against women, Presidents of Women’s Forums and representatives from 10 political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have reached a consensus on the Principles for Political Engagement. The OSCE Mission to BiH facilitated this crucial meeting in Sarajevo, where the finalized text of these principles was agreed upon.

On 27-29 May, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan (PCUz) organized a three-day training for employees of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan on “Access to the constitutional court: Features of judicial argumentation in constitutional proceedings”. Twenty-five participants