OSCE Chairman urges participating States to draw up a blueprint for Organization's reform

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, 7 September 2005 - The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, called on participating States to "roll up their sleeves and get down to business" in a keynote address to a two-day conference on reform of the OSCE, starting today in Slovenia.

The Chairman-in-Office urged participants in the Brdo conference to be bold in their ideas to help shape the process of reform, while bearing in mind what is politically possible.

"This meeting and the one organized by the Helsinki Monitor in Vienna on Friday should be the beginning of a more operational phase to strengthen the effectiveness of the OSCE and to provide good opportunities to reflect on the recommendations that have been made," he said.

He welcomed the progress made so far on the issue of reform, one of the priorities of the Slovenian Chairmanship during 2005. "Within six months we have gone from a pessimistic sense of crisis to a constructive sense of expectation. However, reform is a continuing, long-term process and cannot be finished overnight", he said.

The Chairman-in-Office expressed his hope that a clear picture of what should be the OSCE's strategic priorities and how its effectiveness can be strengthened will emerge at High-Level Consultations, due to take place in Vienna next week.

"We need to identify which issues should be in the focus of the reform in the short, medium and long term", he said. "All States must feel that they have a stake in the Organization, and are treated as equals. But this also means that they have equal obligations towards OSCE commitments."

Minister Rupel said the Slovenian Chairmanship would make every effort to have a Ministerial Declaration, which would create a stronger sense of common purpose in the OSCE, ready for the annual meeting of the Organization in Ljubljana in December.