On Tuesday 30 August, the secretary general of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Lamberto Zannier, said he would like the EU to play an important role in strengthening the OSCE.
"The European Union can play a key role in strengthening and empowering the OSCE", he told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee. He stated that the EU was the biggest financial contributor to the OSCE, providing €114 milllion - in other words, 70% of the OSCE's annual budget. Zannier spoke in favour of strengthening relations between the OSCE and EU. "An OSCE office will be opened in Brussels. I would like to strengthen the institutional relations between the OSCE and EU and I hope that this will enable our relations to be strengthened", he said.
The special representative for the German presidency of the OSCE, Gernot Erler, considered that "the EU and the OSCE must continue their cooperation in order to guarantee security in Europe". He stated that Austria and Italy will take the presidency of the OSCE after Germany. "We will be able to work on a continous basis, exhange experience and cooperate with the EU", he said.
Erler spoke of the many ongoing crises - Ukraine, Georgia, Ngorno-Karabakh - and the instability in central Asia. "We have institutions available and effective security and cooperation structures that have been tried and tested", he said. "It is the responsibility of all the participating states to take full advantage of this potential", he added.
Erler stated that the German foreign affairs minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, had invited his counterparts from the OSCE countries to an informal meeting in Potsdam on 1 September in order "to create a dialogue on the current challenges and find measures to strengthen the OSCE in the future". "I believe it is in our interest to fight and overcome the troubles that the EU and OSCE are going through", he said, hoping that this meeting would create momentum for the OSCE Council that will take place in Hamburg on 8-9 December, so as "to obtain the best results for the OSCE". Forty ministers have confirmed that they will attend. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)