The Charter for European Security from a 1 European Union (EU) perspective

Lars-Erik Lundin

Introduction At 12-noon on 19 November 1999, the High Representatives of fifty-four States, and of the European Commission, signed the Charter for European Security. The occasion was the Summit of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in (OSCE)in Istanbul. The Charter was achieved after five years of protracted and difficult negotiations. The intention of this article is to discuss the Charter from two essential perspectives. First, I will be looking at those general commitments undertaken by participating States in the Charter that do not specifically refer to work inside the OSCEas an organisation. Secondly, a brief analysis will be made of the role and functions of the OSCE in the European security architecture as described in the Charter. In an intermediary section of this article, I will refer to the essential link between these general commitments of participating States, on the one hand, and the role of the OSCEon the other. This link is the result of an EU initiative which was taken up in the Charter to create a so-called Platform for Co-operative Security, seeking to establish better co-operation between international organisa- tions and institutions in implementing the main goals of the OSCEand indeed of the international community. In addition, the evolution towards a comprehensive concept of security will be discussed, as will the character of the OSCE as an inclusive organisation. The gradual shift in OSCE work is also highlighted from concentrating in earlier years on norm-setting negotiations towards putting more emphasis on the review of the implementation of commitments and on developing the operational role of the OSCEas an organisation. 'To begin with, the following may be noted. The Charter is not a document which has been studied in detail in international legal departments of Foreign Ministries in order to be able to pass a ratification procedure. It is not a legally binding document, it is a political act, and, as such, it is an expression of political commitments. The consensus character of the document by necessity also means that in some respects it is rather abstract. Whoever will be looking for concrete language on Kosovo and Chechnya will therefore be disappointed. Such contem- porary issues were dealt with in a separate Summit Declaration in Istanbul. Whether the Charter will be seen as a Charter for European Security, as is its title, depends on the implementation of the general commitments of the Charter, and on the impact of this implementation in the real world. Some would have preferred its earlier, somewhat less ambitious working title of 'Charter on European Security' , some will wish to refer to it as the 'OSCECharter'.

1 The views expressedin this articleare those of its author and do not necessarilyreflect thoseof the EUor the EuropeanCommission 12

Commitments Nevertheless, this document (in particular as regards the commitments undertaken by its participating States) is an achievement. The most vital component of the Charter is contained in the seventh paragraph. This reaffirms each and every one of the commitments undertaken previously. One has to be aware of the evolution of the CSCEup to the creation of the OSCEas an organisation in 1994, in order to fully grasp the significance of this reaffirmation. It was not difficult to find agreement to reaffirm the Helsinki Final Act of 1975. The difficulty arose over reaffirming commitments undertaken immediately after the end of the . The Helsinki Final Act of 1975 was, for its time, a remarkable document which had real importance for the liberation of Central and Eastern Europe. Still, it was a Cold War product. In fact, no single CSCEdocument before 1990 men- tioned the word 'democratic' in any other place than in the name of the German Democratic Republic. No real recognition of the need for independent judiciaries occured before 1990. Free media was an unrecognised concept in the old CSCE. No serious consideration was given to the need to protect and promote the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, beyond a mere affirmation of their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. Above all, the primacy of the sixth principle of the Helsinki Final Act on non-intervention in internal affairs was absolute. This meant that, although a door had been opened for a discussion of human rights, there was no recognised right to pursue concrete human rights cases across international borders. A series of CSCEdocuments, beginning in 1990-91, changed all this. These were the Charter for a New Europe 1990, the so-called Human Dimension2 Documents of Copenhagen 1990 and Moscow 1991, the Geneva Report on National Minorities 1991 and the 1994 Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security. The Paris Charter contains a 'steadfast commitment to democracy based on human rights and fundamental freedoms'. The Copenhagen document elaborates the meaning of the rule of law, free elections, freedom of expression and association (forming the basis for the role of NGOs)as well as the freedom of movement. The Geneva Document outlines a series of ways in which the rights of persons belonging to national minorities can be taken into account, including through self-administration. The Moscow Document contains the following remarkable phrase: 'The commitments undertaken in the field of the human dimension of the CSCEare matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned' . This represented a significant advance. The examples I have given above are not exhaustive. The fundamental value of the new Charter is that it is not selective. It states in paragraph 7: 'All OSCE commitments, without exception, apply equally to each participating State'. In this phrase, another advance can be identified: the equal application of all commit-

2 The term 'humandimension' in the OSCErefers to the areas of humanrights, democracy and the rule of law. -- ...... " . -...... -