OSCE PA President Margareta CederfeltBIRMINGHAM, 6 July 2022 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Margareta Cederfelt (Sweden) was re-elected in Birmingham today along with Vice-Presidents and Committee Officers. The new Vice-Presidents include Irene Charalambides (Cyprus), Rt. Hon. Mark Pritchard (United Kingdom), Pere Joan Pons (Spain), and Michael Georg Link (Germany).
The election results were announced at today’s closing plenary session of the 29th Annual Session, which also included addresses by the Lord Speaker McFall of Alcluith and OSCE PA Secretary General Roberto Montella, as well as the adoption of the Birmingham Declaration.
In his remarks, the Lord Speaker expressed solidarity with the people of Ukraine and urged resolution of the conflict. He also highlighted challenges such as climate change and stressed that it is up to parliamentarians to scrutinize the work of governments on the global stage. In her closing remarks, President Cederfelt thanked the OSCE parliamentarians for their support and emphasized the need for following up on the recommendations included in the Birmingham Declaration.
Yesterday, the OSCE PA’s general committees elected leadership for the coming year. In the General Committee on Political Affairs and Security, Richard Hudson (United States) was re-elected Chair, Costel Neculai Dunava (Romania) Vice-Chair, and Laurynas Kasciunas (Lithuania) Rapporteur.
In the General Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment, Azay Guliyev (Azerbaijan) was elected Chair, with Artur Gerasymov (Ukraine) and Gudrun Kugler (Austria) re-elected Vice-Chair and Rapporteur, respectively.
The General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions elected Nikoloz Samkharadze (Georgia) Chair, Farah Karimi (Netherlands) Vice-Chair, and Johan Buser (Sweden) Rapporteur.
Video of the Annual Session is available on the OSCE PA’s YouTube and Facebook channels, and photos of the meeting can be found on Flickr. Please visit the Annual Session’s web page for more information.
