Brussels, 26/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 23 May, the European Union announced that it has doubled its exceptional assistance - from €5 million to €10 million - for the work of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine.
A sum of €1.5 million was dedicated to the observation of the presidential elections on 25 May. The EU funding enabled 105 additional observers to be deployed.
€5 million has been allocated to support the extension of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) deployments in several Ukrainian towns (Kherson, Odessa, Lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Chernivtsi and Luhansk). The European Commission stated that the mission provides “a valuable and neutral source of regular reporting of developments on the ground”. The SMM has thus been able to reach its full capacity of 500 international monitors.
Lastly, a further €3.5 million will be used to support other organisations' activities related to confidence-building measures - including legal and constitutional reform, dialogue, mediation, electoral assistance and early-warning mechanisms. (CG)