506th Meeting of the Forum for Security Co-operation 7 February 2007
Mr. Chairman, the Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security has, ever since its adoption in 1994, been a document at the very heart of the OSCE’s politicomilitary dimension, as well as of the OSCE as a whole.Numerous conferences and seminars on the Code of Conduct have been conducted in the OSCE region and the implementation of the Code was reviewed frequently using the Annual Implementation Meetings and special sessions of the FSC as platform. The recent discussion on the Code focuses on today’s relevance of the Code od Conduct, on the issue of awareness-raising and on the possibilities for improving its implementation. To this end, a number of proposals have been tabled by participating States.
Mr. Chairman, the European Union has always been on the forefront in supporting the Code's implementation in the whole of the OSCE area. To underline this and in an attempt to provide new impetus to the discussion of the Code of Conduct, the Member States of the European Union, co-sponsored by Norway and Switzerland have distributed a food-for-thought paper on the way ahead in improving the implementation of the Code.
Without going into detail of this paper, we would like to express the hope, that a systematic approach, as proposed in the paper, would be followed in order to improve the implementation of the Code. As a first step, and to launch the process of work on Code of Conduct issues in the FSC, a discussion on possible ways to improve the implementation of the Code should take place. Then the work should start to introduce and work out proposals: for example to providing assistance in implementing the Code, a review of the Code of Conduct questionnaire, and a publicdiplomacy campaign targeted on the interested public and national and international institutions, which could communicate the work achieved and contribute to improving the implementation of the Code of Conduct.
This approach would contribute to the strengthening of the Code and provide for outreach possibilities to Partner countries and beyond. But first and foremost, the process of working out proposals and the ongoing discussion within the FSC would highlight the importance of the Code of Conduct as a valid platform and unique landmark to address security challenges in the 21st century.
Mr. Chairman, it is our hope that the food-for-thought paper will help to facilitate a productive discussion among participating Sates. We are looking forward to receiving concrete recommendations by individual participating States.
The Candidate Countries Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia, EFTA country Norway, a member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this statement.
* Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
