Statement by Mr Bruce George, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
27 January 2003

Mr GEORGE (President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly). - Mr Lloyd, I do not want to inflate your expectations of my powers of oratory. After all, the President of the Assembly implored members to be more concerned about the presentation of fact, and not to lapse into oratory. It was a privilege to listen to the Turkish Prime Minister. A former British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, is demonised in Turkey. Perhaps the juxtaposition of a Lloyd and a George precipitated the Prime Minister's departure, but we should do nothing to inhibit what seems to be a remarkable reform agenda. Those right-wing columnists who felt that the election of his party would be a cataclysm should revisit their faulty analysis, because from the evidence so far this is a reformist Administration like no other since the era of Kemal Attaturk.

One thing that I have learned from my brief presence here, which I may follow, is the use of the bell. I am exploring other options to silence Members of Parliament. The Sweeney Todd option is to pull a lever and they disappear into a great hole, but I viewed with interest the look of fear and terror in the eyes of members of this Assembly when the bell was pressed.

It is an honour for me, as President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, to address this plenary session of the Council of Europe's Assembly. I thank the President for this invitation to share with you my views on the activities of our Assembly and its growing relationship with your Assembly. The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, as the first European assembly to be created in the history of our continent, and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, as the youngest international parliamentary institution in Europe, have been productive and successful in the achievement of our common objectives and goals.

Today, more than ever, the Assemblies of the OSCE and the Council of Europe need to work together to ensure democracy, the rule of law and the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in all our countries. We must not forget that we are important and indispensable in that regard, as we provide the democratic foundations of the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

Over the decades, our two Organisations, the Council of Europe and the OSCE, have played an essential role in the transformation of Europe. There is still an enormous amount of work for both of us to do to try to create peace and security and to implement the European standards of democracy and human rights. Sometimes, although not always, our activities overlap, and co-ordination and co-operation are needed. There is a lot of work for both Parliamentary Assemblies to do.

The objective of building European security in a comprehensive way and preventing conflict is a challenge for the OSCE and the Council of Europe, which can best be faced by the two organisations working together and maximising our respective areas of competence and comparative advantage. Likewise, at the parliamentary level, I am pleased that our two Assemblies have established a close relationship and an effective and mutually reinforcing division of labour. The fact that the governmental and parliamentary leaderships of the OSCE and the Council of Europe have met regularly to co-ordinate their activities and to discuss matters of mutual concern is of paramount importance.

The parliamentary dimension of the OSCE is essential, especially as it has become an important partner of the Council of Europe in furthering peace and stability across Europe. The OSCE remains the most flexible and responsive Euro-Atlantic foreign policy instrument for non-military contingencies. It is the primary instrument for early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation in its region. It has the capacity to deal with intra-state conflict and transnational threats to stability. Its broad Euro-Atlantic and Euro-Asian composition and its comprehensive approach to security are a unique asset to our organisation. We must continue working to enhance our co-ordination and co-operation, especially in those fields related to the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and election monitoring.

Before analysing the prospects for our co-operation, allow me briefly to present to distinguished members of your Assembly some of our activities over the past few months.

The Assembly, like yours, continues to address issues of concern to citizens while promoting parliamentary involvement and facilitating inter-parliamentary dialogue and co-operation. Nato and the European Union are in the process of enlarging and the Council of Europe's functions have not been decreasing, I note. The outcome of the Prague summit last November and the conclusions of the Copenhagen European Council will have far-reaching consequences not only for the future of Europe but for the nature of the transatlantic partnership. The enlargement of both organisations will extend even further the already large common space of democratic stability of the European continent.

The OSCE has a crucial and unique role to play in enhancing security within and among states. Our Assembly has decided to devote the 2003 Rotterdam annual session precisely to that theme: the role of the OSCE in the new architecture of Europe, under which we intend to address from our perspective the issues related to the enlargement of Nato and the EU. Furthermore, the ad hoc committees of our Assembly continue to serve as an important tool in furthering the development of democracy and stability in the OSCE region. We have ad hoc committees on Belarus, Moldova, Kosovo and Abkhazia, all of which have contributed to promoting dialogue and seeking co-operation in politically sensitive and unstable areas. In these areas, the committees have promoted a degree of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and assistance in the development of the legal and democratic institutions and processes by providing advice to the parties in conflict on legal, constitutional and political frameworks.

Our Assembly also continues to pay special attention to the relations between the OSCE and its Mediterranean and Asian partners. The conference on security in the Mediterranean held in Madrid last October, and the trans-Asian parliamentary forum to be held in Almaty later this year clearly show our commitment. These conferences seek to bring regional issues-in this case, those of the Eurasian and Mediterranean dimensions of the OSCE-to the attention of a greater number of parliamentarians throughout the OSCE area. I hope that you agree that the events and aftermath of 11 September highlighted both the importance of security in Asia and the Mediterranean to security in the OSCE area as a whole.

We also pay special attention to economic and environmental issues in our area. I should like briefly to reflect on some of the political issues that our Assembly is currently addressing, and which both our assemblies should continue to join in enhancing our co-operation. We have a very effective continuous programme for monitoring parliamentary elections. Our Assembly has taken the lead in monitoring parliamentary and presidential elections in the OSCE area for more than a decade. We also successfully co-operate with one of the institutions of the OSCE, the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights..

Election monitoring is one of the areas in which our two assemblies have developed co-ordination and co-operation. Others, the European Parliament in particular, have also been included in that co-operation. This is an area in which our joint efforts will be needed for several years to come. Monitoring requires co-operation on several levels. Each election monitoring operation should be a long process in each individual country. This is not a process in which you have omniscient schoolmasters acting as monitors of ignorant pupils whose elections are being monitored. Our election monitoring is a form of parliamentary solidarity. Consolidation of parliamentary democracy throughout Europe and beyond is in our common interest. It also consolidates peace, stability and prosperity.

Election monitoring can be successful however only when new democracies or democratising nations, or those who are beginning the process towards democracy, co-operate in good faith. With very few exceptions, this has been the case. Unfortunately, there have been examples of a lack of sufficient co-operation. In this conjuction, I would like to mention briefly our relationship with Belarus.

Some time ago, I received from your President a letter suggesting that we more formally agree on co-operation in election monitoring in the form of a memorandum of understanding. This is being worked on and I certainly welcome it. I suggest that the memorandum on which we agree should include the following up of election monitoring findings, in close co-operation with the parliaments and the governements of the countries concerned. We have done this already in the case of Ukraine.

We co-operate on the stability pact. The parliamentary troika has a genuine parliamentary dimension, which I am sure should be welcomed. Co-operation between the Council of Europe and the OSCE, and between our two parliamentary assemblies, has taken the form of an established practice of the two plus two and three plus three meetings. Again, that is very important.

On Belarus, our two assemblies have been co-operating at a high level and there is some small cause for cautious optimism in the recent agreement between the OSCE and the Government of Belarus on the new OSCE office in Minsk, which should begin its work again in the coming weeks. We should not forget, however, that this breakthrough came only after a stalemate of only one year during which the work of the OSCE advisory and monitoring group slowly ground to a halt as its international staff were, one by one, denied visas and diplomatic accreditation and forced to leave the country. I can only hope that the Belarusian authorities will not impede the work of this new office, but rather co-operate in deepening the parliamentary and democratisation process. It is important too that the Assembly of which I am proudly president will shortly be deciding whether to readmit Belarus to our proceedings. That decision will be made by our standing committee on 20 February, and only after a report following a visit by our working group on Belarus.

Let me thank you for your invitation to present to our colleagues the activities and objectives of the OSCE parliamentary assembly. We are determined, as I have said time and again, to develop relations and co-operation with you. We have had some very good experience of that and I hope that, under my presidency, that will deepen and broaden. I can assure you that the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will continue to do its best in assisting you to strengthen respect for and implementation of commitments to democracy, human rights, religious freedoms and the rule of law. We must add to that list responsible economic and environmental policies-in other words, furthering peace and stability across our continent. Thank you to listening to my rather over-long words and I wish you well in your deliberations.