Our mandate on environmental issues

The OSCE’s mandate on environmental issues goes back to the early days of the CSCECSCE
Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe negotiations in the early 1970s and the Helsinki Final Act 1975, which included both economic and environmental questions in what was then commonly referred to as ‘basket II’. Among other issues, the participating States agreed “to study, with a view to their solution, those environmental problems which, by their nature, are of a multilateral, bilateral, regional or sub-regional dimension” and “to increase the effectiveness of national and international measures for the protection of the environment”.

A central institution in the OSCE’s environmental dimension was created at the Helsinki Follow-up Meeting, which took place between 24 March and 8 July 1992. The event, where the participating States made important steps to institutionalize the CSCE—eventually paving the way for it to be renamed into the OSCE—established, among many other bodies, the Economic Forum. The Forum quickly became an annual event and was renamed in 2007 the Economic and Environmental Forum, reflecting the growing importance of environmental security issues, such as land degradation and the management of water resources.

Both in Rome in 1993 and in Budapest the following year, the OSCE participating States made statements aimed at strengthening the second dimension. Another important milestone was reached when in 1996, at the Lisbon Summit meeting, the Heads of State or Government tasked the Permanent Council with elaborating the mandate for a Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities within the Secretariat. The Permanent Council agreed to a mandate on 5 November 1997, establishing the position of Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities within the OSCE Secretariat.

In 2003, at the Ministerial Council in Maastricht, the participating States adopted the OSCE Strategy Document for the Economic and Environmental Dimension and committed themselves to co-operating on economic, good governance and sustainable development issues.

Over the years, the CSCE/OSCE has widened its portfolio of environmental activities, including such issues as energy security and improving the environmental footprint of energy-related activities, water management and waterways co-operation, as well as disaster risk reduction. A full compendium of commitments made by the participating States in the environmental realm is contained in a reference manual on the OSCE’s second dimension.