The Steering Committee of the OSCE Network held its annual meeting in Hamburg on 29 November 2018. Its members met for the first time in person, having only conducted business electronically to that point. In its current composition, the Committee was elected by electronic vote for the two-year term from February 2018 to February 2020. Previously a five-person committee, its membership was doubled to ten.
At the Hamburg meeting, the Committee members discussed the joint efforts of the now 85 Network institutes (based in 42 countries). They also discussed matters of cooperation with the OSCE, OSCE delegations, and government sponsors of the Network. In addition, they took stock of the activities that were conducted under the five Network projects implemented in 2018.
The Network has been a success story thus far: In the five years since its creation, it has been actively engaged in collectively elaborating innovative policy papers with practical recommendations for the OSCE and its participating States and in organizing a variety of OSCE-related Track II workshops and conferences. The Committee has now made plans for 2019 that range from continued Track II work in the area of conventional arms control to dialogue measures with civil society representatives in disputed territories.