News and press releases

LJUBLJANA, 7 November 2017 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Representative on South East Europe, Slovenian parliamentarian Roberto Battelli, spoke today at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s 96th Rose-Roth seminar on the Western Balkans in Ljubljana, Slovenia...

Fostering regional dialogue through youth connectivity between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while also promoting youth resilience to security risks in local communities was the focus of a youth intercultural camp held in Kopanik, Serbia, from 3 to 7 November 2017...

A week-long workshop on the electronic exchange of customs information concluded on 3 November 2017 in Dushanbe. The workshop, organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe, was attended by ten officers of the Customs Service of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and fifteen officers of the Customs Service under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro, together with the OSCE Mission to Skopje, organized a first working meeting between the institutions of Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in charge of drafting a protocol on co-operation between the two countries in the fight against human trafficking. The meeting was held from 30 October to 1 November 2017 in Skopje...

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region between the evenings of 3 and 4 November compared with the previous 24 hours. Between the evenings of 4 and 5 November, the Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations – including, however, an outgoing salvo of a multiple launch rocket system south-south-west of Horlivka – in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region compared with the previous 24 hours. It followed up on a report of a civilian casualty in the Trudivski area of Donetsk city’s Petrovskyi district and observed damage to civilian residences from shelling and gunfire in Staromykhailivka and Pryshyb. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas and recorded ceasefire violations in the Petrivske disengagement area and near the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in all three areas and elsewhere.* The Mission saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Kurakhove. It facilitated and monitored repairs and maintenance to essential infrastructure near Artema and Novozvanivka. The SMM continued to monitor the situation of civilians walking across the Stanytsia Luhanska bridge. It visited four border areas not under government control...

An intensive training course on online media and the use of social networks was held by the OSCE Presence in Albania in close co-operation with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for 15 journalists and editors of the Albanian public broadcaster, RTSH, from 31 October to 2 November at the premises of RTSH in Tirana.

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro supported the local branch of the Regional Youth Co-operation Office of the Western Balkans (RYCO) on 1 November 2017 in bringing together representatives from more than 40 NGOs at the premises of the Youth Centre in Podgorica...