OSCE's Belgian Chairmanship says helped start new chapter for Organization

BRUSSELS, 5 December 2006 - The OSCE's Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, said today Belgium had helped redress the balance between the three aspects of security and championed reforms that could end an introspective episode and start a new chapter for the Organization.

Closing the annual two-day Ministerial Council of the 56 OSCE participating States, Minister De Gucht said the Foreign Ministers had been able to approve a wide range of decisions and statements, including on transport, energy, organized crime, criminal justice, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh and the sexual exploitation of children.

"Belgium has put in a lot of effort, across the board so to speak, to restore a better balance between the three dimensions, the three pillars on which the OSCE is based," he said. "Belgium did so in good faith, but there will be a need to carry this effort forward."

Spain will chair the OSCE in 2007.

The Chairman-in-Office said the decision Ministers adopted to establish a three-committee structure under the main decision-making Permanent Council would improve the quality of the preparatory process, for example. The three committees will cover the three dimensions of security - human, economic and environmental, and politico-military.

Over the years the OSCE had developed a broad and comprehensive concept of security, blending together the military and the civilian, Minister De Gucht said. This had been innovative, effective and widely recognized.

"But today, things look quite differently, as if the OSCE has become a victim of its past successes. The entire political-military side, once prominent, has become anaemic, if not stagnant," the Chairman-in-Office said.

He said progress had been made at the Ministerial Council on small arms and their trafficking and the fight against proliferation. The battle against terrorism also remained significant.

"But there are certainly no good reasons to neglect, as is now the case, traditional arms control and military confidence-building issues," Minister De Gucht said, adding the adapted Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty was at risk and countries need to break the vicious cycle that had prevented it being widely ratified. "It will call for political will and a sense of global responsibility that has so far escaped us."

On the protracted "frozen" conflicts, the Chairman-in-Office said there had been some movement.

"But apart from Nagorno-Karabakh, where the prospects look considerably better and where we were able to adopt a statement, this movement has been mainly circular. In other words, we are not closer to a solution than a year ago on Moldova and Georgia. Thus, by and large, conflicts remain frozen," he said. This was frustrating but not for lack of trying.

"What is lacking in most cases is the political will to strike a deal, and any deal necessarily implies mutual concessions," Minister De Gucht said.

He said progress had been achieved in the human dimension on trafficking, the protection of children, media capacity building and the fight against intolerance. But he said it was unfortunate Ministers had been unable to adopt a decision to strengthen engagement with human rights defenders.

"It is my firm conviction and that of the vast majority of participating States that States committed to upholding human rights should protect and support those defending and promoting human rights," the Chairman-in-Office said.

Minister De Gucht said Ministers had adopted elements of a reform package after the review of the efficiency of the OSCE that had been requested at the last Ministerial Council in Ljubljana.

"I hope this will put an end not so much to the dynamic of reform which is intrinsic to all institutions but to this introspective episode which has lasted too long, actually since Sofia, and which threatened to paralyze the normal activity of the OSCE," he said, referring to the 2004 Ministerial Council venue.

"What we did in practice is to bring a political response to a political concern thereby clearing the way for resuming co-operation and understanding within the organization," said the Chairman-in-Office. "I hope that in that sense Brussels will mark a new departure for the OSCE."

The Belgian Chairmanship also issued a formal statement summarizing the outcome of the Ministerial Council.