The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 12. Urges the Council and the Commission, notably in view of the setting-up of the EEAS, to provide guidance for a comprehensive and effective European death penalty policy with regard to dozens of confirmed European nationals facing execution in third countries, which should include strong and reinforced mechanisms in terms of the identification system, the delivery of legal assistance, EU legal interventions and diplomatic representations; 13. Further encourages the activities of non-governmental organisations working for the abolition of the death penalty, including Hands Off Cain, Amnesty International, Penal Reform International, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Sant’Egidio and Reprieve; welcomes and supports the recommendations on EU instruments in the fight against the death penalty made at the 12th EU-NGO Forum on Human Rights; 14. Undertakes to monitor the issue of the death penalty, to raise specific cases with the relevant national authorities and to consider possible initiatives and ad hoc missions in retentionist countries, so as to urge government authorities to adopt a moratorium on executions with a view to completely abolishing them; 15. Requests the Council and the Commission, when it comes to concluding agreements with countries that still apply the death penalty or with countries which have not signed the moratorium with a view to abolishing the death penalty to strongly encourage them to do so; 16. Requests the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission and the Members States to continue to speak with one voice and to keep in mind that the main political content of the resolution must be the adoption of a worldwide moratorium as a crucial step towards the abolition of the death penalty; 17. Calls in particular on the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission to demonstrate the political priority she attaches to the abolition of the death penalty by systematically raising the issue in political contacts with retentionist countries and through regular personal interventions on behalf of those at risk of imminent execution; (…) 19. Encourages regional cooperation to this end; points out, for example, that Mongolia formally established a moratorium on executions in January 2010 and 95