Activities

The main activities of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly include Annual Sessions, Winter and Fall Meetings, Conferences & Seminars, Election Monitoring Missions, and Field Visits, as well as Interaction with other OSCE Institutions and Inter-parliamentary co-operation.

The Annual Session, held in July every year, is the largest event in the Assembly’s calendar. The Assembly’s three General Committees and in Plenary meet to debate and pass recommendations on OSCE-related issues and to elect new Officers.

The Winter Meetings are held in Vienna in February every year, while the Fall Meetings are hosted every year by a country around the Mediterranean Sea. Every two years, the Assembly also organizes an Economic Conference. In addition, the Assembly sends parliamentarians to support and observe the important work being carried out by the OSCE in the field.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has played a leading role in election observation in the OSCE area. Since 1993, it has participated in 95 observation missions and deployed more than 2,850 parliamentarians. Since parliamentarians are themselves directly elected public officials, they have particular expertise in political campaigns and electoral processes, bringing added credibility to the conclusions of OSCE observation missions.

Although the OSCE PA has its own independent budget and may take unilateral, independent initiatives, it has developed regular and formalized high-level interaction with the other OSCE Institutions. The Assembly is represented at every level of official OSCE meetings and maintains a close working relationship with the OSCE Chair-in-Office, the Troika, the OSCE Secretary General, as well as the other OSCE Institutions in Vienna, Prague, Warsaw and The Hague.

The Assembly has also developed extensive co-operation with other parliamentary bodies, such as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the Inter-parliamentary Union, the Assembly of the Western European Union, and the Inter-parliamentary Assembly of the CIS.