OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva (left) during his meeting with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ivica Dacic in Belgrade, 27 May 2015.BELGRADE, 27 May 2015 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) and Secretary General Spencer Oliver met today with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic in Belgrade for extensive discussions on the situation in and around Ukraine and other topics.

Chairperson Dacic briefed the PA President and Secretary General on the activities of the recently inaugurated working groups to deal with various aspects of the Ukraine crisis, including security; political affairs; IDPs, refugees and humanitarian assistance; and economic affairs and rehabilitation, in line with the Package of Measures on the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

The sides also discussed the critical security situation in and around the Donetsk airport as well as in Shyrokyne, located 20 km east of Mariupol, Ukraine.

They also expressed concern at troubling political and security developments in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and discussed the OSCE's work in relation to the situation.

The sides also discussed issues related to Kosovo.

President Kanerva invited the Chairperson-in-Office to address and attend the OSCE PA's upcoming Annual Session, which the Chairperson-in-Office accepted.

The Assembly's 24th Annual Session will be held in Helsinki on 5-9 July and will bring together parliamentarians from the OSCE's 57 participating States to discuss and adopt resolutions on political affairs, economics, the environment and human rights. The Annual Session is open to the media.

The sides also discussed ongoing initiatives to mark the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, the OSCE's founding document.

Chairperson-in-Office Dacic informed President Kanerva of a possible ministerial meeting of the OSCE on the occasion of the Final Act's anniversary to be held in Helsinki following the PA's Annual Session and invited the President to participate.

President Kanerva and Secretary General Oliver are in the Serbian capital to take part in the fifth of the OSCE PA's Helsinki +40 seminars, which aim to generate ideas for organizational reform. The Belgrade seminar is hosted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in co-operation with the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence (BFPE).