News and press releases

POTSDAM, Germany, 1 September 2016 – “It is my firm belief that we must work together to face the common threats of our times and to make use of the OSCE more effectively as a central platform for dialogue,” said OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the end of the Informal Meeting of OSCE Foreign Ministers in Potsdam today. “At a time when we are facing grave differences of opinion and a loss of trust in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian area, we as political leaders have a duty to listen to each other and to re-engage in genuine dialogue,” Steinmeier added...

POTSDAM, 1 September 2016 – Speaking today at an informal meeting of OSCE Foreign Ministers in Potsdam, Germany, Parliamentary Assembly President Christine Muttonen (MP, Austria) urged intensified efforts at diplomacy and confidence-building, stressing that governments should make full use of the OSCE’s instruments to address common challenges...

BERLIN, 1 September 2016- The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, welcomed the agreement on early parliamentary elections in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and issued the following statement today in Berlin:...

Local government authorities in the town of Miskolc, Hungary, should halt issuing eviction orders to Roma residents of social housing, and should promote adequate, sustainable, non-discriminatory solutions to housing segregation, says a field assessment visit report published by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 1 September 2016.

KYIV, 1 September 2016 – All sides should heed the ceasefire appeal ahead of the start of the new school year, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Ertugrul Apakan said today...

In Donetsk region, the SMM noted an increase in the number of explosions recorded (approximately 520) compared with the previous reporting period (nearly 400). In Luhansk region, the SMM heard ten explosions and approximately 500 bursts of small-arms fire, an increase compared with the previous day when not a single ceasefire violation was recorded. On the night of 30 August, the SMM was forced to leave its forward patrol base in Shchastia due to the close proximity of shelling. It followed up on reports of civilian casualties and analysed craters in Donetsk city, Dokuchaievsk, Pikuzy (formerly Kominternove), Pervomaisk, Troitske, and Krasnohorivka. The SMM continued to monitor the withdrawal of weapons and observed weapons in violation of the withdrawal lines in government-controlled Vodiane. The Mission faced two restrictions to its freedom of movement, both in areas not controlled by the Government.* It observed a calm situation along the administrative boundary line with Crimea...

People in eastern Ukraine deserve peace and the sides should do their utmost to ease the people’s suffering, said Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine Ertugrul Apakan while visiting Donetsk and Luhansk regions on 28-30 August 2016...