Summits / Ministerial Councils

In the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, the participating States declared their resolve to continue the multilateral process initiated by the first Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. They therefore decided to organize follow-up meetings and conferences. As there were no formal CSCE institutions at that time, these conferences were the essence of the CSCE process between 1977 and 1989. This also explains why they lasted a considerable time.

In the Charter of Paris for a New Europe (1990), it was decided that the follow-up meetings would take place every two years and would last a maximum of three months. Two years later, the Helsinki Summit changed the name of the follow-up meetings to "review conferences" and decided that they would precede the summits. In the Budapest Document 1994, the term "review meeting" is used.

There have been four Follow-up Meetings between the signing of the Final Act (1975) and the institutionalization process initiated in 1990 and consolidated in 1992. The three subsequent Review Conferences (or "review meetings") took place partially in Vienna and their final results completed at the venue of the Summit.

Belgrade

4 October 1977 - 9 March 1978
Follow-up Meeting - Final Document

Madrid

11 November 1980 - 9 September 1983
Follow-up Meeting, Final Document

Vienna

4 November 1986 - 19 January 1989
Follow-up Meeting, Final Document

Helsinki

24 March - 8 July 1992
Follow-up Meeting
This Follow-up Meeting did not yield a final document. The results of proceedings can be found in the Summit document: "Challenges of Change" adopted at the Helsinki Summit Document in July 1992.

Budapest

10 October - 2 December 1994
Review Conference
This Review Conference did not yield a final document. The results of the conference proceedings can be found in the Summit document: "Towards a Genuine Partnership in a New Era" adopted at the Budapest Summit in December 1994.

Vienna, Lisbon

4 - 22 November 1996
Review Conference, Security Model, Economic Dimension, Rapporteurs report

Vienna, Istanbul

1 October - 20 September and Istanbul 10 November 1999
Review Conference, Consolidated document including Rapporteurs reports