The Secretary General
To:
OSCE PA President
Members of the OSCE PA Bureau
Members of the OSCE PA Standing Committee
Copenhagen, 12 March 2020
Dear President,
Dear Members of the Bureau,
Dear Members of the Standing Committee,
This is to inform you that, following a sharp increase of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in
both Denmark and Austria and in accordance with recommendations and restrictions issued by
the respective State authorities, I have ordered the temporary closure of the OSCE PA
International Secretariat Headquarters in Copenhagen and of the OSCE PA Vienna Liaison
Office, both effective as of today until 30 March, and instructed all Staff to work from home
using modern technologies that allow telecommuting.
These decisions have been taken in coordination with the OSCE executive structures, the OSCE
COVID-19 Taskforce as well as the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe and
NATO.
At the moment, all our Staff members in Copenhagen and Vienna are well and nobody is
personally affected by the COVID-19. Please rest assured that the OSCE PA Staff is fully
equipped for an effective telecommuting and that this formula will grant the needed business
continuity to the work of our Assembly. Despite the closure of the two offices, the International
Secretariat will indeed continue to be operative and our traditional
modus operandi
makes us
flexible and efficient in times like these.
Moreover, please note that all OSCE PA activities scheduled in March, as well as some of those
scheduled in April, are to be either postponed, cancelled or conducted via video-link/other ICT.
We will continue to constantly monitor the evolution of the virus outbreak as to assess the
feasibility of the rest of the planned activities in April and beyond. I will take due care of updating
you regularly.
Wishing you all to stay safe and in good health, I thank you for your support and I look forward
to maintaining our regular contacts and to seeing you soon when this critical time will be over.
Yours sincerely
Roberto Montella, Secretary General
_________________
Tordenskjoldsgade 1, 1055 Copenhagen K., Denmark
Phone: +45 33 37 80 40 - Fax: +45 33 37 80 30 - [email protected] - www.oscepa.org