OSCE meeting in Bratislava calls for strengthening co-operation on energy security

BRATISLAVA, 6 July 2009 - The OSCE offers an appropriate platform for dialogue and co-operation that enhances energy security because it gathers countries that are energy producers, energy consumers and countries through which energy is transported on an equal level, speakers at an OSCE conference said today.

The two-day meeting, jointly organized by the Greek Chairmanship of the OSCE, the Slovak Government and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, focuses on how energy security in the OSCE region can be strengthened.

Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said the meeting was a contribution to a structured OSCE discussion on energy security.

"We want to use it to call on the participating countries to continue dialogue using the comparative advantage of the OSCE as the only security organization in Europe that brings together, on one platform, the key countries of production, consumption and transit of the energy media," he said.

Ambassador Louis-Alkiviadis Abatis, the Deputy Head of the Greek OSCE Chairmanship Task Force, noted that consumers, producers and transit countries were interdependent on each other.

"This inter-dependence is a call to responsibility to us all, a call to dialogue and to building platforms for new and necessary co-operation," he said. "The challenges raised by questions of energy security are also a call to the OSCE participating States to make the most of the OSCE and its comprehensive concept of security."

The OSCE Secretary General, Ambassador Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, said all OSCE participating States had an interest in the reliability and stability of the energy supply chain.

"For the OSCE, considered and practical dialogue is the most important way to improve the quality and the reliability of energy security, which remains, in essence, a win-win equation," he said. "The economy broadly dislikes both instability and unpredictability; producers require long-term guarantees in order to plan income and investments, while consumers need strategic reliability in order to guarantee growth and development."

On Tuesday, 7 July, journalists are invited to the closing session, to be held from 11:00 to 12:30 at the Slovak Foreign Ministry, Hlobka cesta 2, Bratislava.
An agenda and speeches are available on the OSCE website: //www.osce.org/conferences/eea_2009_energy.html