On the behalf of the National Assembly delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the participants of the seminar were addressed by the Head of the delegation Dr Dijana Vukomanovic who said that in the next two days the parliamentarians of OSCE PA member states will be discussing the global importance of the OSCE and its Parliamentary Assembly. She commended the parliamentarians’ contributions and participation in all the Helsinki +40 seminars, from Moscow, Washington, Stockholm, Copenhagen and today Belgrade.

“Serbia is fully aware of the complexity of the situation in modern Europe and the world today, an awareness made all the stronger by the fact that after Switzerland and Ukraine it is now up to Serbia to do its best to conduct all of its duties and responsibilities as OSCE Chair in 2015”, stressed Vukomanovic.

She added that the OSCE parliamentarians are entering new partnerships with civil society organisations, research and scientific institutions, opening new chapters in the development and strengthening of the organisation’s capacities to better face the new challenges of the 21st century in the Euro-Asian and Euro-Atlantic region.

In his opening address, OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva said that the topic of the two-day seminar in Belgrade is a well-known one, one that unites all the OSCE ideas and charges the parliamentarians with the big responsibility of finding responses to the new challenges the organisation comes up against. He also added that with every new meeting the parliamentarians are attempting to strengthen the organisation, and the crisis in Ukraine and around it is a challenge to the OSCE tenets and obligations. The Helsinki Final Act should remain the base when it comes to security, but it should not be viewed as a historical act – it should be a governing document, one the organisation should follow so as to adequately respond to the multidimensional security challenges, concluded Kanerva.

Sonja Licht, President of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, and João Soares, Chairman of the Helsinki +40 Colloquium Project, also spoke in the opening remarks.

The participants of the seminar will discuss efforts to reform the OSCE under the Serbian Chairmanship, including in responding to crises and human rights challenges, as well as the future of the Organization and its field missions, one of which is in Serbia, as well as the results of the Helsinki +40 Project, and the seminar will end with a debate at Belgrade University with the topic “The future of the OSCE: lessons learned from the OSCE's engagement in Ukraine”

The two-day final seminar of the Helsinki +40 Project (27- 28 May 2015) is co-organised by the National Assembly, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence.