OSCE Chairman welcomes agreement on sharing of budget contributions until 2007

LJUBLJANA, 25 November 2005 - The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, expressed satisfaction at the decision today by all 55 participating States to approve the Organization's "scales of contribution", or method of dividing the cost of the budget among its members.

Its passage by the Permanent Council in Vienna means there will be no repetition of 2004's failure to obtain consensus on this issue, which led to a delay on the release of the current budget until May of this year.

"I am delighted that we have been able to settle this issue even before our self-imposed deadline of 1 December", said Minister Rupel. "Together we have ensured the smooth functioning and financing of the Organization, and proved that if there is a will then together we can find a way to put our own house in order.

"It means during the Slovenian Chairmanship we have now reached decisions on all outstanding administrative and management issues, including also the selection of a new Secretary General and the budget difficulties at the start of this year. We can pass on the Chairmanship to Belgium with a clean slate on such issues and allow them to concentrate on the challenges ahead."

This final agreement is retroactive to the start of this year and replaces the provisional solution for 2005. It also opens the way for a timely decision on the actual budget for 2006.

Minister Rupel added that the agreement improved the atmosphere at a crucial time before Ljubljana hosts the Ministerial Council, which meets on 5 and 6 December to consider other important decisions affecting the future of the Organization.

"I think it sends a strong political signal that the States truly value the Organization. That suggests to me that the spirit of compromise, which was in short supply at the start of the year when we had no consensus on this and other issues, has now returned", the Chairman-in-Office said.

"If we can maintain this common sense of ownership then it certainly augurs well for the success of this year's meeting and for the future of the OSCE's important security, economic and human rights work in the field and through its specialized institutions."

As a result of the decision, a number of countries including some of the smaller, more prosperous States, have agreed to pay a higher share of the budget. However, the basis of the agreement is a gradual reduction in the Russian Federation's contribution to the standard scale (covering the costs of the OSCE Secretariat and Institutions) from 9 per cent in 2004 to 6 per cent by 2007.

At the same time, the U.S. contribution to the standard scale will rise from 9 to 11.5 per cent and the four largest European Union members, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom will each see their shares rise from 9.1 to 9.35 per cent.

On the second scale of contribution, which covers the costs of the field operations, Russia's share will fall from 3.72 to 2.5 per cent, while the U.S. contribution will rise from 13.57 to 14 per cent.

The overall share of the 25 EU countries will be almost the same, with the EU continuing to contribute around 70 per cent of the OSCE budget.

The new shares were distributed on the basis of criteria decided upon in previous decisions on scales of contributions, according to which the capacity to pay (based on the United Nations contributions' scale) and the political nature of the Organization are taken into account.