Launch of publication to mark 20 years of the OSCE Mediterranean Contact Group

The brochure on The OSCE Mediterranean Partnership for Co-operation: A Compilation of Relevant Documents and Information will be presented by the Chairperson of the OSCE Permanent Council, Ambassador Thomas Greminger; the Chairperson of the Contact Group with the Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation, Ambassador Vuk Žugić; the Chairperson of the Forum for Security Co-operation, Ambassador Claude Giordan; and Secretary General Lamberto Zannier.

The publication marks the 20th anniversary of the Contact Group with the Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation. December 1994 was when the fourth CSCECSCE
Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe Summit of heads of State or Government held in Budapest decided to intensify the dialogue with the five non-participating Mediterranean States (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Morocco and Tunisia, Jordan joining in 1998) and to create an informal, open-ended contact group, at the level of experts, within the framework of the Permanent Council in Vienna, aiming at conducting a dialogue with these non-participating Mediterranean States in order to facilitate the interchange of information of mutual interest and the generation of ideas.

The publication contains an in-depth overview of the relationship between the OSCE and its Mediterranean Partners featuring all relevant historical documents, a table of current and past projects with the Mediterranean Partners and a compilation of key findings originating from relevant OSCE events that have taken place since the Vilnius Ministerial Council in 2011.

Attention is also given to the role of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in fostering OSCE-Mediterranean dialogue, and to the New-Med Track II Network launched in Rome on 18 September 2014.

A selection of OSCE publications of interest to the Mediterranean Partners can also be found in this publication.

The brochure concludes with comments on to the Helsinki+40 Process insofar as it affects the Mediterranean Partnership, by Ambassador Gunaajav Batjargal, Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the OSCE and Cluster VIII Co-ordinator of the Helsinki +40 Process.