OSCE Senior Council to meet this week in Prague

VIENNA, 27 March 1995 - The first meeting of the OSCE Senior Council is scheduled for 30-31 March at the Czernin Palace in Prague.

In the December 1994 Budapest Document, the leaders of the 52 OSCE States underlined the organization's role as the "primary instrument for early warning, conflict prevention and crisis management" in the region and strengthened its political, consultative and decision-making bodies. One of these measures was to replace the Committee of Senior Officials with the higher-ranking Senior Council and encourage States to send representation at the political director level. The Senior Council is mandated to discuss and set forth policy and broad budgetary guidelines.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovács, Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, will open the meeting at 14.00 on 30 March. A discussion is expected to follow on issues of particular concern to the OSCE area. Also on the agenda is a discussion of a common and comprehensive security model for Europe for the twenty-first century. As directed in the Budapest Document, work on a security model will be onging within the OSCE, and the results available will be submitted to the 1996 OSCE Summit in Lisbon.

A press briefing with Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovács is planned prior to the opening of the meeting on Thursday, 30 March at 11:30. The concluding press briefing with Hungarian Deputy Secretary of State André Erdös and the Chairman of the Senior Council, Ambassador Istvan Gyarmati is scheduled for Friday, 31 March at 12:00. All briefings will be held at the Czernin Palace. All interested members of the media are invited to attend. For accreditation, please present your press credentials at the entrance.

Address: Palace Czernin, Loretanske namesti 5, Prague 1Tel. (+42 - 2) 2431 0971 or 2431 0969, Fax:(+42-2) 2431 0970