President Petros Efthymiou of Greece today won a second one-year term as president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

"I am honoured and humbled that my colleagues from parliaments throughout our region have re-elected me to lead this Assembly," Mr. Efthymiou said.

“I look forward to using this time to expand on the important work we have started to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the OSCE and strengthen dialogue with parliaments and other democratic institutions in places where democracy is still a relatively new experiment,” he said

As president, Mr. Efthymiou has been a leading voice for dialogue with the Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation and strengthening the new parliament in Kyrgyzstan. During his first term, he spoke on behalf of the Parliamentary Assembly at the first OSCE summit in 11 years, and, in another first, he traveled to top-tier universities in the United States and United Kingdom to increase awareness about the world's largest regional security organization.

A stalwart supporter of the OSCE field operations, which he has labeled “the backbone” of the organization, Mr. Efthymiou often uses his high level meetings to bring positive attention to OSCE missions in various countries and express his support for re-opening recently closed missions.

“In my second term this Assembly will continue its tradition of being the source for new ideas and creative solutions for our organization to tackle the economic, security and human rights challenges across the OSCE region,” President Efthymiou said. “As the most transparent institution in the OSCE family, I know in the year ahead we will continue to lead by example,” he added, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly official website reported.