In 2005, eight out of nine OSCE representatives are sent on international missions and 80º% of the budget is spent on OSCE field operations. The Missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Georgia help illustrate the OSCE's role as guarantor of security in Europe.

Owing to its expertise in the areas of early warning, conflict prevention and crisis management, the OSCE is instrumental in the fight against terrorism and organised crime. Related OSCE activities focus on police training and border control.

The OSCE Monitoring Mission in Skopje is tasked with reducing tensions and preventing a spillover of the conflict in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. OSCE efforts towards reconciliation of ethnic groups include police training and sponsorship of the South East Europe University project.

This video clip presents the OSCE’s role in the field of election monitoring: listening to voters and administration officials, giving advice and technical assistance, helping in the preparation of elections, and monitoring the ballot and vote counting. It describes the OSCE’s presence in countries in transition and in the new Eastern European democracies, such as Georgia, Ukraine and Russia, as well as in well-established Western democracies, such as the United States.

This video clip describes the activities of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, in the fight against the pollution caused by radioactive waste. The OSCE is carrying out public information and awareness campaigns regarding the health and safety risks and is trying to encourage governments to cooperate in the management of the ecological disaster.

This video clip presents the OSCE campaign for the return and reintegration of refugees and displaced persons in Croatia in cooperation with the Croatian Government and the country’s non-governmental organisations. It describes how the OSCE is helping in the localisation and housing of displaced Serbs in Croatia as part of a policy of long-term reconciliation and reconstruction.

This video clip outlines the origin of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) as an instrument for political and military détente in Europe during the Cold War and its development in post-Communist Europe as an international organisation active mainly in the fields of crisis prevention and management, renamed ‘Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe' (OSCE) in 1995.

Established in 1999, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo is the Organisation’s largest field operation. This video clip identifies the various tasks undertaken by the Mission: training of the judiciary and police force, identification of missing persons, integration of national minorities, promotion of freedom of the media and monitoring of elections.

Following the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden to the European Communities on 1 January 1995, the Court of Auditors is composed of fifteen Members (Article 13 of the Council Decision 95/1/EC, Euratom, ECSC).

On 24 April 2008, the Austrian Federal Council authorises the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, making Austria the seventh European Union Member State to ratify the Treaty.