OSCE, EU leaders discuss future of European security, Georgia

BRUSSELS, 17 March 2009 - The OSCE and the European Union should both actively participate in and shape discussions aiming to develop the European security architecture, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, said after an OSCE-EU Troika meeting in Brussels today.

"We all agree that a wide-ranging dialogue on security, held in good faith and with a view to finding common ground, is needed," she said.

"Discussions on such dialogue have been held at OSCE meetings, including the OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki, and the Greek OSCE Chairmanship is ready to organize an informal ministerial meeting this summer in Greece with the aim of facilitating further dialogue," she said. She welcomed the EU's interest in and support for this endeavour.

Such discussions must recognize that though great progress has been made since the end of the Cold War, more can be done to foster indivisible security based on existing security institutions, she said.

"We should build on what we have achieved so far. The comprehensive, values-based approach embodied by the OSCE must be reinvigorated and not weakened," she said.

The OSCE Troika brings together this year's Chairperson-in-Office with the previous and succeeding Chairpersons, or their representatives. Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin, represented the 2010 OSCE Chairmanship, while Finland, which chaired the OSCE in 2008, was represented by Anne Sipilainen, Finland's Ambassador to the Political and Security Committee of the EU. The European Union was represented by members of the EU's Czech presidency, the Commission and the next presidency country, Sweden.

On Georgia, Bakoyannis said she viewed last month's OSCE decision to extend the mandate of the 20 unarmed military monitoring officers in Georgia until the end of June "as recognition of the need for an OSCE presence on the ground".

"It is unfortunate that the OSCE Mission to Georgia finds itself in a process of discontinuation because of a lack of consensus on an extension of its mandate," she said. "In this time of crisis, the Mission's work to promote stability in the region is more crucial than ever. The Greek Chairmanship is intensively negotiating in an attempt to find consensus for a continued OSCE presence in Georgia."

The Chairperson also welcomed progress achieved so far in the Geneva discussions on Georgia - which are co-chaired by the OSCE, the EU and the United Nations - and said she hoped those talks would continue to yield results.

Other topics discussed at the meeting included Kosovo, Albania and Serbia. OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut also attended the meeting.