OSCE's Corfu Process key for future of European security, says EU president Spain's foreign minister

VIENNA, 19 January 2010 - The OSCE-anchored dialogue on the future of European security known as the Corfu Process brings an opportunity that must be seized, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told the OSCE Permanent Council today.

Moratinos, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the Corfu Process had "reactivated the role of the OSCE and was offering a strategic perspective and structured procedure for discussion."

"The anchoring of the Corfu Process in the OSCE shows that security in Europe has a global and indivisible character," he said.

Moratinos, who was OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2007, welcomed Kazakhstan's Chairmanship of the OSCE this year, saying the Central Asian country's leadership brings an "historical opportunity for Kazakhstan as well as for the OSCE."

Kazakhstan has proposed holding an OSCE summit in 2010, and Moratinos said the EU was eager to see that such a meeting would have substantial content.

"From my side, I want to reiterate that I believe that a summit is indispensible to generate the political impetus that the OSCE needs in order to significantly advance in core matters," he said.

Consensus among the OSCE's 56 participating States is required for a summit to be held.

Moratinos also called on OSCE participating States to revitalize the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and to adapt the Vienna Document, an OSCE agreement from 1999 that comprises confidence and security-building measures including obligations to exchange military information.

"We need to be ambitious and reflect on mechanisms that could generate trust, security and stability in a strategic environment that is very different from the one that existed when the current instruments were created," he said.

On Georgia, Moratinos noted that though the EU has a mission in Georgia, it was "in favour of restoring the OSCE's presence on the ground". On Nagorno-Karabakh, he said that the frequent contacts between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan had created "a positive dynamic that should not be wasted", and he called for talks in the 5+2 format to be resumed to resolve the Transdniestra conflict.

"The efforts we are making to strengthen security and stability in Europe are worth nothing if they do not contribute to the resolution of real problems on the ground," he said.

The Permanent Council is one of the OSCE's main, regular decision-making bodies. It meets weekly in Vienna to discuss developments in the OSCE area and to make appropriate decisions.