665th Meeting of the Permanent Council
The European Union listened carefully to the statement just made by the Ambassador of Georgia.
The EU reiterates its concerns about the high number of violent incidents in South Ossetia. We are particularly concerned about the Spot Report of the OSCE Mission to Georgia of 7 May, which describes how a joint JPKF/OSCE monitoring patrol, upon their recovery of an anti-aircraft weapon and missile inside the zone of conflict, were threatened at gunpoint by armed men who claimed to belong to the South Ossetian “Ministry of Interior”. This treatment of JPKF/OSCE staff, preventing them from performing their monitoring duties, is unacceptable and harms efforts to reach a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Given the tense situation on the ground, the EU urges all parties to exercise caution, to refrain from provocative actions and to make good on previous promises regarding de-militarization as a confidence-building measure.
The EU calls upon all the parties to the conflict in South Ossetia to implement the existing decisions of the Joint Control Commission. The EU is disappointed that the informal consultative meeting of the JCC Co-Chairmen in Tskhinvali on 19 April failed to reach any agreement on the next steps in the conflict resolution process. The EU also encourages the parties to continue using all existing negotiation formats to explore ways of increasing the effectiveness of the conflict resolution process.
The EU would like to take this opportunity to reiterate its appreciation for the valuable work done in South Ossetia by the OSCE Mission.
The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia, EFTA countries Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldovaalign themselves with this statement.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
