COPENHAGEN, 5 March 2015 – The Swedish Parliament and one of the country’s leading think-tanks, The Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), will host the next leg of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Helsinki +40 Project in Stockholm on 11 March.

Experts, policy-makers, ambassadors and OSCE parliamentarians will gather to consider how the European security architecture can become more effective in responding to crises; the OSCE’s potential to counter challenges through its cross-dimensional approach to security; the PA’s role in the OSCE; and related topics. 

Held under the theme “The OSCE’s role in (re)consolidating European security,” the event is the third in the OSCE PA’s series of international seminars that aim to evaluate the OSCE’s past and inspire reform ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Organization’s founding document, the Helsinki Final Act of 1975.

Tobias Billstrom, the first deputy speaker of the Swedish Parliament; Rolf Ekeus, former OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities; Lars-Erik Lundin, former EU Ambassador to the OSCE; Anders Bjurner, former Swedish State Secretary of Foreign Affairs; and Goran Lennmarker, former President of the OSCE PA, will be among the keynote speakers at the day-long event.

Helsinki +40 Project Chair and former PA President Joao Soares (MP, Portugal); PA Secretary General and Special Project Co-ordinator Spencer Oliver; and PA Vice-President Kent Harstedt will also offer remarks. 

UI is an independent, non-profit institute that serves as a platform for research and information on international relations. Founded in 1938, its programmes focus on foreign policy, defence and security, democracy and development, governance and other topics across the OSCE area.

The Helsinki +40 Project’s first and second seminars were hosted by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) in Moscow and The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) in Washington, respectively.

Further events will be held in Copenhagen in April, in co-operation with the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), and in Belgrade in May, in co-operation with the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence (BFPE). 

The results of the Project will be presented as a final report during the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's 24th Annual Session in Helsinki on 6 July 2015.

For more information, visit www.oscepa.org/parliamentary-diplomacy/helsinki40.