III Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
| Published date | 01 March 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410902700107 |
| Author | Arie Bloed |
| Date | 01 March 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Part B: Human Rights News |
72 Intersent ia
III ORganIZaTIOn fOR seCuRITy and
COOPeRaTIOn In euROPe (OsCe)
A B*
1. GREECE NEW CHAIRMANINOFFICE FOR 2009
As of 1 January 2 009, Greece has ta ken over the chai rmanship of the OSCE from
outgoing chair Finland. is is hardly an enviable posit ion any longer in view of the
increasing security problems in t he Eurasia n region and Greece was im mediately
confronted wit h a new crisis as a result of the Russian-Uk rainian con ict about gas
deliveries to Ukraine. When Russia cut the gas deliveries to Ukr aine on 1 January,
its Western neighbours in C entral Europe a nd the Bal kans were a lso hit, as the gas
deliveries to countries like Romania, Bulgaria , Hungar y, Slovak ia a nd the Czech
Republic also diminished, leading to strong demands from the Czech Republic (which
took over the EU Presidency in January) and the EU Commission to resume f ull
deliveries immed iately. Within days the Russians completely closed the gas pipelines
running th rough Ukraine, leading to serious shorta ges in several EU countries in the
middle of harsh winter conditions in Europe. e dispatch of EU experts to monitor
the gas pipelines across Ukrainia n territories m ay be a solution to this problem for
the time being. (At the time of writing th is chronicle, the outcome of this conict wa s
still uncer tain.)
Finland has had a dicult time as OSCE Cha irman, faced in particular w ith the
devastating Georgian-Russian War in August and its serious political fallout. One
of t he consequences is that the long-standi ng and rather successfu l OSCE Mission
in Georgi a has to close down in t he rst months of 2009, as t he Russian Federation
refused its consent to prolong its mandate in December last year. Although the
Finnish Foreign Minister, Alexander Stubb, ha s been a very act ive and skilfu l OSCE
Chairman, it can not be den ied that 2008 showed serious furt her weakening of the
overall import ance of the organisation, a gain demonstrated by the lac k of consensus
on a concluding document at the Helsinki Ministerial in December last year. e
Finnish chairma nship a lso had to observe the refusa l by the Russian authorities
* Director of t he Asia-Pacic L aw Enforcement Instit ute, Bangkok, ailand. A ll internet sites were
last accesse d on 15 January 2009.
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