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Former OSCE PA President Joao Soares nominated to serve as Secretary General of the OSCE

10 February 2011 08:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementieva â€“ APA. Former OSCE PA President Joao Soares and former Foreign Minister of Austria Ursula Plassnik were nominated to serve as Secretary General of the OSCE. In nominating Soares, Foreign Minister Luis Amado mentioned the importance of the next Secretary General being a high level political appointment, a concept long promoted by the Parliamentary Assembly. â€œWe believe that the role of the future Secretary General, supporting the implementation of Decisions and political dialogue among participating States, will be of utmost importance,â€ the Foreign Minister wrote in his nomination letter. â€œTherefore, following the suggestion put forward by the Austrian Foreign Minister that the new Secretary General of the OSCE should be â€˜an individual with ample political experience,â€™ I would like to propose the candidature of Mr. Joao Soares to the position of Secretary General of the OSCE.â€
Mr. Soares was a member of the Portuguese parliament from 1987 to 1990 and again since 2002, elected by the constituency of Lisbon. He is former mayor of Lisbon and a former member of the European Parliament. He served as OSCE PA President from 2008-2010.
Incumbent Secretary General Mark Perrin de Brichambautâ€™s authorities end this year. He has been in this post since 2005. Brichambaut was elected to this post in 2008 for the second term. According to the rules, one person can not be elected more than two times.