Wojciech Sawicki, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and David Hobbs, Secretary General of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, meet with OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver, 28 February 2013.COPENHAGEN, 28 February 2013 – Secretaries General from the Council of Europe, NATO, and OSCE Parliamentary Assemblies met today in Copenhagen for a day of consultations aimed at strengthening the common work of the elected bodies.

At the invitation of OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver, Wojciech Sawicki, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and David Hobbs, Secretary General of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, came to Copenhagen for talks at the International Secretariat of the OSCE PA.

In their first joint meeting, the leaders discussed ways they could intensify co-operation between their respective Assemblies, whose members collectively represent more than one billion citizens across the Northern Hemisphere.

The secretaries general shared experiences and ideas ranging from election monitoring to administration and budgeting matters and agreed it would be worthwhile to convene again with staff counterparts to share best practices in organizing parliamentary conferences and events in the field.

Oliver, Sawicki and Hobbs discussed sharing calendars of Assembly activities to prevent scheduling conflicts and reduce overlapping events and looked forward to closer co-operation in the months ahead.