OSCE proven its capacity to act in crisis year 2014 – continued efforts to reconsolidate European security needed, says outgoing Swiss chair
With Switzerland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE drawing to a close, Swiss Foreign Minister and Chairperson-in-Office Didier Burkhalter called on all participating States to redouble efforts at overcoming the crisis of European security and help strengthen the OSCE as an anchor of cooperative security in Europe.
Security in Europe has deteriorated markedly in 2014, Burkhalter noted. The Ukraine crisis has become one of the worst crises in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian area since the end of the Cold War. It has brought human suffering to the Ukrainian people and has negatively impacted on security and stability in the OSCE area and beyond. The Ukraine crisis has thrown into question many assumptions about the post-Cold War European order, Burkhalter said. The Helsinki Principles have been repeatedly violated, most blatantly when Crimea was annexed. These developments have run counter to the spirit of mutual respect and co-operation as defined in the Charter of Paris for a New Europe of 1990 and as reflected in many other OSCE documents that have been unanimously adopted since. They jeopardize the vision of a free, democratic, common and indivisible Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security community stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok and rooted in agreed principles, shared commitments and common goals. The deteriorating security situation has also complicated efforts at finding peaceful and sustainable solutions to the protracted conflicts in the OSCE area, Burkhalter continued.
In this year of crises, the OSCE has demonstrated its value as an inclusive organisation, linking the Euro-Atlantic and the Eurasian regions, the CiO underlined. The OSCE has built bridges and fostered dialogue regarding the Ukraine crisis, thus helping to promote diplomatic solutions. It has become a major operational responder assisting Ukraine in deescalating the crisis and advancing the political process. In addition, irrespective of the tensions among participating States regarding the situation in and around Ukraine, the OSCE has managed to advance cooperative approaches to a series of other security challenges, as demonstrated by the decisions and declarations adopted at the Basel Ministerial Council.
According to Burkhalter, the OSCE can and should continue to play a seminal role in overcoming the Ukraine crisis. He asked all participating States to provide the OSCE with the necessary means and political support beyond 2014. In this context, he welcomed today’s decisions by the Permanent Council to increase the share of regular OSCE funding in the financing of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and to adopt the 2015 budget for the OSCE. Burkhalter also made the case for further strengthening the OSCE’s capacity to act, pointing out that in view of the current security challenges the organization’s cooperative and comprehensive approach to security was more important than ever. Switzerland would continue to be an active and strong supporter of the OSCE, in the Troika format and beyond, he added.
The CiO underlined the importance of addressing the broader crisis of European security and called on all participating States to make constructive contributions to that end. He informed that the Panel of Eminent Persons on European Security as a Common Project, which had been initiated by the Swiss Chairmanship in close coordination with the subsequent Chairmanships of Serbia and Germany, will have its first meeting on the margins of the Munich Security Conference in February 2015. The Panel, whose composition will be announced shortly, will help promote an inclusive and constructive security dialogue and rebuild trust across the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian regions and find ways of strengthening implementation of OSCE commitments, Burkhalter said.
Burkhalter expressed his sincere gratitude to everyone who contributed to the OSCE’s work under the Swiss Chairmanship. He thanked in particular the Secretary General of the OSCE and the staff of the Secretariat, the OSCE institutions, namely the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the High Commissioner on National Minorities and the Representative on the Freedom of Media as well as the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, all the OSCE field missions, including the leadership and the monitors of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and the Observer Mission to the Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk, and his Special and Personal Representatives who have greatly supported the work of the Swiss Chairmanship. He concluded by extending his best wishes to the incoming Chairperson-in-Office, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, and by assuring Serbia of Switzerland’s continued commitment to close cooperation in the framework of the Troika and on the basis of the Swiss-Serbian joint Work Plan for the consecutive Chairmanships of 2014 and 2015.