Countries need to start looking aggressively at the entire business model of trafficking and tackle the conditions allowing the crime to thrive. At the OSCE, we launched a programme of assistance to countries who want to increase their prosecution: we help them train their police officers, prosecutors and judges. But everything starts with political will: countries need first to see this as a priority, says Valiant Richey, OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, in an interview to EUROPOST.

The 11 July early parliamentary elections in Bulgaria were competitive, and fundamental freedoms were generally respected, Artur Gerasimov, Special Co-ordinator and head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) short-term observation mission to Sofia, told a press conference Monday.

Bulgaria is doing better than many other European countries in identifying and seizing the assets of traffickers of human beings, said Valiant Richey at a press conference in Sofia on Thursday. As the OSCE special representative and coordinator for combating trafficking in human beings, he visited the Bulgarian capital to meet with cabinet officials and members of non-governmental organisations engaged in this important battle.

On Monday, a press conference by international observers of Bulgaria's 45th National Assembly elections was held in Sofia. The use of state resources by the ruling GERB party in the election campaign and limited media coverage of all candidates were among the conclusions made by international observers of the parliamentary vote on Sunday, Bulgarian National Radio reported.

Germany's Helga Schmid has been announced as the new secretary general of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Her appointment comes after nearly half a year of disagreements on the matter between the member countries, mostly between the West and Russia. The term of the outgoing secretary general, Swiss diplomat Thomas Greminger, ended back in July.

The parliament of Belarus on Friday set 9 August as the date for the country's next presidential election, news wires reported. The 65-year-old President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation of 9.5 million since 1994, announced last year that he will run for another mandate. It  will be his sixth consecutive term in office.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine on Thursday discussed advancing peace in east Ukraine, but achieved little as progress is also hampered by the coronavirus restrictions, observers noted.

Serbia's government decided to revoke a decree giving it control over information on the coronavirus outbreak, following protests and the detention of a journalist for writing about a major hospital lacked protective gear and properly trained staff, news wires reported. PM Ana Brnabic said the decree, enforced on Saturday, would be revoked on Thursday "so not a shadow could be cast on our work."

Parliamentary polls in Belarus lacked respect for democracy and denied basic freedoms to voters and candidates, international vote observers said on Monday, after the opposition failed to win a single seat, news wires reported.