Slovakia took over OSCE Presidency on New Year's Day

On New Year's Day Slovakia assumed its one-year presidency of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), with Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak (a Smer-SD nominee) due to present Slovakia's priorities officially at the OSCE headquarters in Vienna on January 10. The three priorities of the Slovak presidency should be to prevent and to mitigate the consequences of conflict, and to secure future and effective multilateralism, with the presidency's headline slogan being: 'A Presidency Focused on the People'. A dozen top-level international conferences will also be held in Slovakia to discuss, inter alia, anti-Semitism, violent extremism, the economy and the environment, cyber-security, and governance and reform of the security sector.