On the road to Basel Ministerial Council, Swiss Chair launches discussion on ways to overcome the crisis of European security

New York, September 26, 2014 - On the margins of the UN-General Assembly in New York, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter launched a discussion on how to overcome the crisis of European security that has deepened in the face of the crisis in and around Ukraine. At today’s informal meeting attended by more than 25 foreign ministers and representatives of around 35 OSCE participating States as well as representatives of partner States and security organizations, Burkhalter sketched out three avenues towards reconsolidating European security as a common project and invited participants to outline their views on how best to proceed.

Burkhalter stressed that the first priority would remain to stabilize the situation in Ukraine. Pointing out that the budget of the Special Monitoring Mission had grown by an extra 30 Million Euro as a result of additional activities relating to the implementation of the Minsk Protocol and the Minsk Memorandum, he urged OSCE participating States to provide the SMM with the necessary resources – in terms of experts, finances, and equipment – so that it can operate effectively, without delay, and in safe conditions.

As a second avenue, the CiO suggested that the lessons learnt from the crisis regarding Ukraine should be fed into the OSCE’s ‘Helsinki+40’ reform process, adding that strategic guidance by political leaders was required to strengthen the organization as an anchor of cooperative security in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian regions. He proposed, as a third avenue, to set up a Chairmanship-commissioned high-level panel of eminent persons with representatives of all regions of the OSCE to nourish a reflection process on issues such as how to ensure better compliance with the Helsinki Principles and how to rebuild confidence and reduce perceptions of threat.

Taking good note of the many interventions that followed, Burkhalter expressed his gratitude for all the insights and proposals offered. He welcomed the willingness of ministers to address these issues through dialogue. On the road to the OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel in early December, the Swiss Chairmanship would further consult with participating States on these avenues, he said. Burkhalter added that the Ministerial Council would provide an opportunity for ministers to continue their collective discussion. He concluded by calling upon participating States to help adopt at Basel a number of carefully selected decisions in areas that matter to people and where the OSCE offers comparative advantages.