Press release issued by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

ATHENS, 1 December 2009 - The following is a press release issued by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly today. The views expressed in this press release do not necessarily reflect those of the Chairmanship, nor of all OSCE participating States.

Press release: PA President calls for OSCE reforms -- supports summit

ATHENS, 1 December 2009 - Speaking at the 17th OSCE Ministerial Council in Athens today, OSCE PA President Joao Soares called for organizational reforms to overcome inefficiency and the cumbersome decision making processes in Vienna. These reforms, he said, would lead to a revival of the OSCE.

"The decision-making structures in Vienna are virtually unable to reach agreement, particularly on key political issues," Mr. Soares said, and "for many years now the Permanent Council has proved unable to come to a single decision that in any substantive way improves upon the existing commitments that we already have."

President Soares also pleaded for a greater effort on the part of the OSCE to seriously review implementation of the OSCE's commitments, but, unfortunately, he said, our willingness and ability for serious review have slowly eroded in recent years.

"I believe that it is time to once again focus on whether we -- all of us -- are keeping our promises," Mr. Soares said, adding that he hoped that the OSCE can be reinvigorated through a genuine review process at the highest political level.

Part of the revival would be, according to Mr. Soares, to hold an OSCE summit next year, as proposed by Kazakhstan -- next year's OSCE Chair-in-Office. Such a Summit would be a reminder to our citizens of the "important contribution of the Helsinki final Act and the Charter of Paris," he stated.

Contact:

Klas Bergman, Director of Communications, OSCE PA
Tel. +45 33 37 80 40; mob. +45 60 10 83 80; email: klas@oscepa.org

The full text of the speech is available at www.oscepa.org.