COPENHAGEN, 10 August 2020 – The OSCE PA’s International Secretariat mourns the death of Pentti Väänänen, a Finnish politician who served as Deputy Secretary General of the OSCE PA from 1999 until 2004. He died in his sleep with his wife at his side on 17 July after a battle with cancer.
Väänänen had a long career in politics, working as an advisor for Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa, as Secretary General of Socialist International, as the Director of the International Department of the Finnish Parliament, and as Legislative Counsellor in the Ministry of Justice. He was a member of the original staff of the OSCE PA’s International Secretariat when it was established in Copenhagen in 1993, first as Deputy Director and later as Deputy Secretary General.
On behalf of the International Secretariat, OSCE PA Secretary General Roberto Montella today expressed condolences to Väänänen’s family.
“We are all saddened by the passing of Pentti Väänänen, who was instrumental in setting up the International Secretariat nearly 30 years ago,” Montella said. “I had the pleasure of working with Pentti at the Secretariat in 1998 in Copenhagen, and hosted him in Kosovo in an official visit in 1999 as well as in Montenegro in 2003. He was someone who clearly cared deeply about the mission of the OSCE and for humanity as a whole. He will be sorely missed and on behalf of the OSCE PA, I extend my deepest sympathies to his family.”
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