Annual OSCE Mediterranean Seminar focuses this year on economic and environmental dimension

DUBROVNIK, 31 October 2001 (OSCE) - Representatives from all six OSCE Mediterranean Partners and other international officials are currently gathered in Dubrovnik, Croatia, to attend the annual OSCE Mediterranean Seminar, which this year is focussing on economic and environmental commitments, their implementation and relevance for the Mediterranean region.

The seminar, which began yesterday and will last until the evening of 31 October, was organized by the OSCE at the invitation of the Government of the Republic of Croatia. Besides the six OSCE Mediterranean Partners Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco, representatives of the OSCE participating States, international organizations and non-governmental organizations are attending the event.

"As an active and genuine Mediterranean country, Croatia welcomes the holding of this Seminar in Dubrovnik", said Mr. Roland Zuvanic, the Croatian Deputy Minister of Environment, in his opening address to the participants. "Croatia is a post-conflict and society in transition whose priorities have visibly shifted from the themes of the past and healing the wounds of the last war to the development of issues of the future", he said. In his speech, Mr. Zuvanic identified a number of areas of relevance to Croatia as a Mediterranean country, namely tourism and security, transportation and shipping infrastructure, and water supply.

Mr. Daniel Daianu, representing the Romanian OSCE Chairmanship, underscored in his address that over the last years the OSCE has been engaged in an increasingly intensified dialogue with its partners for co-operation both from the Mediterranean region and Asia. "The OSCE recognizes that the economic divide represents one of the greatest threats to security and stability. Social and economic disparities, poverty and unemployment threaten our security and undermine our values", he said.

Mr. Daianu presented a number of initiatives taken by the Romanian Chairmanship, which are aimed at strengthening the Economic and Environmental Dimension of the OSCE. He also highlighted the contribution the OSCE can bring in this field, and urged all participants to ensure that the recommendations of the seminar are followed up.

In his message to the participants, the OSCE Secretary General, Jan Kubis, stated that the OSCE was paying increasing attention to the building of credible, sustainable and trustworthy institutions, also in the economic field, as a basis for sustainable development, as an integral part of the prevention of conflicts.

His statement stressed that the annual seminar provided an important opportunity to take stock, and that the Contact Group, held throughout the year, was a regular mechanism to focus on specific issues of mutual concern. He underscored that this mechanism needed to be better utilized, both by the Mediterranean Partners and the OSCE participating States, and that the Economic and Environmental Dimension could be better integrated into the regular discussions taking place in Vienna in the context of the Contact Group.

Concluding the set of speeches at the seminar, Ambassador Danielle Del Marmol-Guilbert, representing the Belgium Euroepan Union Presidency, said that "the themes of interest for the European Union and for the OSCE are necessarily similar and overlapping".