The Republic of Bulgaria

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Helsinki process

The Helsinki Final Act was signed on August 1st, 1975, by the Heads of State and Government of all currently existing European nations (except Albania), the United States and Canada. The Act contains politically binding recommendations in the so-called ‘three baskets’: first – political-military aspects of security (the Ten Principles of Helsinki, the so-called ‘Decalogue’); second – economy, science and technology; third – humanitarian cooperation/human rights. 

Until the Paris High-level Meeting (November 1990), the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) had established itself as, above all, a forum for East-West talks on confidence and security building measures and standards of democratic conduct. The multilateral meetings within the Helsinki Process served to monitor compliance with the accords reached, and adherence to the established standards of a politically binding nature.

The elimination of East-West confrontation; the new processes in Europe, accompanied by bitter conflicts; the expansion of the Conference’s geographic scope; the accession of a number of newly-emerged states, as well as other factors, substantially changed the nature of CSCE, turning it into a unique forum that gradually became institutionalised as an international organisation.

From CSCE to OSCE

In December 1994, the Budapest Summit adopted a decision to rename the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe into Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), without altering in any qualitative way the political nature of the commitments undertaken by the participating states.

OSCE is a unique European, trans-Atlantic and Eurasian regional organisation which at present has 56 member-states (all the nations of Europe, including the legal successors to the former USSR, as well as the US and Canada). In terms of both number of member-states and territorial scope (it covers an area of 48,851 million sq. km), OSCE is considered to be the largest regional organisation with competences in the security sphere, encompassing the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian community ‘from Vancouver to Vladivostok’. It also cooperates with its Mediterranean (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia) and Asian (Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Afghanistan, Mongolia and Australia) partners.

The HQ of OSCE is in Vienna, while part of the Secretariat is based in Prague.

The Helsinki Document of July 1992, entitled ‘The Challenges of Change’, the decisions of the Budapest Summit (December 1994), and the Lisbon and Istanbul Summits of Heads of State and Government (1996 and 1999 respectively), all define the priority objectives and functions of OSCE in the area of early prevention of potential and settlement of existing conflicts, by addressing their root causes. The following activities are implemented within the framework of OSCE:

- political consultations;
- operational command of missions deployed in crisis spots or preventative functions in participating countries;
- negotiations.
OSCE has the following advantages compared to other international organisations in Europe:
- a unique line-up of 56 member-states participating on an equal footing;
- a comprehensive approach to security issues;
- flexibility and adaptability;
- a small Secretariat (less red tape);
- relatively low operational costs per member state.

Institutional bodies of OSCE

The supreme political body of OSCE is the Council of Foreign Ministers, which convenes once per annum (its latest session was in Athens, in December 2009). 

Between sessions of the CoFM, the principal political institution of OSCE is the Permanent Council: a regularly convening body for political consultations, based in Vienna, which performs day-to-day operational functions and adopts the relevant decisions.

The OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC) joins together the activities of participating states in two main areas: (a) negotiations on specific measures of arms control, disarmament and confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs); and (b) institutionalised dialogue in the security field.

The OSCE Chairmanship-in-Оffice (the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country elected to chair the Organisation for a one-year period) performs important political functions in averting conflicts and crisis settlement in close conjunction with the previous and next Chairmen-in-Office (for 2010, Kazakhstan, Greece and Lithuania, respectively), forming the so-called Troika.

The OSCE Secretary General has administrative and representative functions. He/she assists the Chairman-in-Office and organises the entire work of OSCE. The position is currently occupied by Ambassador Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (France).

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, established in 1991, currently has about 320 members, representing the national parliaments of all participating countries. President of the OSCE PA is Joao Soares (Portugal). Stoyan Mavrodiev is the Chairman of the Bulgarian parliamentary delegation to OSCE PA.

The functions of OSCE in conflict prevention and crisis settlement are carried out mostly by its 17 field missions in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia), Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine), the Caucasus (Azerbaijan) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan).

The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) acts as an institution for early warning on, or pre-emptive settlement of, emerging ethnic conflicts in any one country or between member-states. Since 2007, the position is occupied by Ambassador Knut Vollebaek (Norway).

The ‘human dimension’ of OSCE continues to be of major importance, with the emphasis being placed not so much on setting new standards as on the implementation of already undertaken commitments. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is OSCE’s principal institution responsible for the human dimension. A core element of its mandate is to organise observer missions for monitoring the election process in individual OSCE member-states, as well as to support the functioning of democratic institutions in newly-independent states. Since 2008, Director of ODIHR is Ambassador Janez Lenarčič (Slovenia).

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media monitors the operation of the media in member-states and provides a rapid response in cases where media freedom is endangered, or where the conditions for the operation of the  media have been rendered unfavourable. Since March 2010, the position is occupied by Dunja Mijatović (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum convenes once a year in Prague. Its function is to provide political stimuli for galvanising a debate in the economic, scientific, technological and environmental aspects of cooperation within the framework of OSCE. Between sessions of the Forum, these issues are the responsibility of the OSCE Coordinator of Economic and Environmental Activities Goran Svilanovic (Serbia).

OSCE and the new challenges

The year 2009 saw the launch of the so-called ‘Corfu Process’ of a thorough review of the common foundations and commitments in the OSCE area, of the situation in terms of all three OSCE dimensions, and of the Organisation’s activities and mechanisms in the field of conflict prevention and its capability to address key security threats in the OSCE area. Dialogue within the framework of this process is aimed at restoring trust between the member-states while enhancing their potential for a collective response to common security threats.

Bulgaria continues to play an active part in the OSCE activities in all three security dimensions; the Bulgarian institutions committed there, according to their spheres of competence, are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Interior, etc.

The Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office of OSCE

The priorities for the 2004 Bulgarian OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office were:

1. Response to security threats
Bulgaria works actively for the implementation of the OSCE Maastricht Strategy to Address Threats to Security and Stability in the 21st Century and for elaboration of additional measures, as necessary, in the sphere of the political-military dimension of OSCE. We directed our efforts in two areas: in seeking the best ways to implement the Strategy and in improving the coordination between the activities of other international organisations involved in this sphere, with a view to avoiding redundancy and attaining better results.

In the anti-terrorism area, the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office attached particular importance to the implementation if the long-term instruments adopted in that respect: the OSCE Charter on Preventing and Combating Terrorism, the Bucharest Plan and the Bishkek Program for Combating Terrorism. As Chairman-in-Office of the Organisation, our country was actively involved in the preparation and holding of the ultimate event within that dimension of OSCE activity: the Annual Review Conference on Security Issues, which was a success and which laid down the future activities of the Organisation. With a view to strengthening the response of member-states to terrorist threats, during that forum the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office of OSCE came up with a proposal to expand the scope of the Organisation’s anti-terrorist activities into areas like container transport security, combating the threat of the use of biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear materials for terrorist acts, the elimination of risks related to surpluses of conventional weapons ammunitions, and cutting off the financial sources supporting terrorism.

In the sphere of combating illicit trafficking, the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office focused its efforts on enhancing the role of OSCE in the fight against human trafficking. The necessary organisational measures were instituted for the timely implementation of the Action Plan against Human Trafficking. A Mechanism for its implementation was successfully put in place. A Special Representative was appointed to take charge of efforts against human trafficking. The commitments of the member-states in this highly sensitive sphere of activity were focused through the adoption, by the Ministerial Meeting in Sofia, of a Resolution on Meeting the Special Needs for Support and Protection of Children Victims of Human Trafficking.

2. Education
By taking into account the importance of education for the security and sustainable development of society, the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office devoted special attention to education as a key priority. This issue was considered within the framework of all three OSCE dimensions. We underlined, time and again, the need to treat the issue of education in a broader sense, so that it would also subsume training in human rights, in good governance, in institutional capacity building and other similar activities. An important stage in mobilising the efforts of international organisations for ensuring proper interaction between national and international training programs has been the Ministerial Meeting on Issues of Education in Central Asia, held in Tashkent in April 2004.

3. Economic and social dimension
In 2004, the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office paid special attention to the implementation of the OSCE Strategy Document for the Economic and Environmental Dimension. It was under the guidance of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office that the 12th Economic Forum of OSCE was held, on the subject of ‘New Challenges to the Building of the Institutional and Human Resources Capacity for Economic Development and Cooperation’. The forum performed a review of the implementation by the member-states of their commitments for creating a favourable investment climate, while also discussing the integration processes in Europe, the problems facing the building of institutional and human resources capacity for the development of the private sector, cooperation between government agencies and the private sector for the prevention of human trafficking, issues of the development of human capital in the Mediterranean, etc. We contributed to the adoption in Sofia of a Resolution of the Ministerial Council on raising the effectiveness of the Economic Forum and for outlining favourable prospects for the organisation of the 14th Economic Forum of OSCE in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in 2006.

4. Human dimension
The human dimension of OSCE had established itself as a priority area in the work of the Chairmanship-in-Office The fight against discrimination, hate crimes, manifestations of aggressive nationalism, chauvinism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and discrimination against Christians, Muslims or members of other faiths; the promotion of tolerance, interethnic, intercultural and interfaith dialogue, were among the key points of our activity in this area. The Chairmanship-in-Office worked actively for organising and holding a series of conferences and meetings of high significance for addressing issues of the human dimension: the Conference on Anti-Semitism (Berlin, April 28th-29th, 2004); the Conference on Tolerance and the Fight Against Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination (Brussels, September 13th-14th, 2004); the Meeting on Issues of Racist, Xenophobic and Anti-Semitic Propaganda by Internet and Hate Crime (Paris, June 16th-17th, 2004).

An important field of activity has been the monitoring and analysis of election processes in OSCE member-states. During the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office, OSCE organised 12 election observer missions, as well as 3 missions for providing expert assistance in the conduct of elections, while making reviews of the election-related legislation of six member-states.

Freedom of the media has been one of the main strains of activity within the human dimension. Owing to the efforts of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office, the Organisation managed to sort out the crisis with the nomination of a new Representative for Freedom of the Media. In March 2004, Miklos Harasti was appointed to that position.

5. Resolution of existing conflicts within the OSCE area
The Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office actively contributed to the quest for solutions to the so-called ‘frozen conflicts’. As an expression of the commitment of the Chairmanship-in-Office, the Chairman-in-Office, as well as his special envoys, visited during the year practically all conflict and problem spots in the OSCE area.

Georgia was in the focus of attention of the Chairmanship-in-Office in 2004. With the active participation of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office, OSCE provided support for the carrying out of presidential elections (January 4th, 2004), and of parliamentary elections (March 28th, 2004). The OSCE Chairman-in-Office visited that country on January 25th, 2004, while in March of the same year he undertook a tour of the Caucasus, during which he revisited Georgia on March 15th. This latter visit coincided in time with the events in and around Ajaria. With the assistance of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, tension was ironed out by peaceful means and Georgia managed to restore stability and reintegrate Ajaria into its territory. The Chairmanship-in-Office was particularly active in its efforts to ease the critical build-up of tension in the conflict zone between Georgia and Ossetia, while supporting the efforts of the UN Mission for comprehensive settlement of the conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia.

With the active assistance of the Chairmanship-in-Office, Armenia and Azerbaijan resumed their dialogue on the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh that has been taking place with the active support of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of OSCE (the Russian Federation, the USA and France), within the framework of the so-called Paris Process.

Another major aspect of the work of the Chairmanship-in-Office was support to the efforts for seeking a lasting and mutually acceptable solution to the Trans-Dniester conflict. The timely actions, the commitment and positive messages of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office contributed to a large extent towards easing tension between Moldova and the Trans-Dniester authorities, and for averting its further escalation. 

6. Border security and policing
Among the key commitments of the Chairmanship-in-Office were issues of border security in the context of trafficking in human beings, arms and drugs, and the related organised crime, as well as the OECE’s efforts to align border policing functions with international standards. On September 7th and 8th, 2004, Vienna hosted the first of its kind International Conference on Border Control and Security, co-sponsored by OSCE and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime; the Conference proposed the adoption of coordinating and effective measures for addressing the challenges in these areas.

7. Partners for cooperation
The Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office regarded as one of its key priorities the strengthening of cooperation with Asian and Mediterranean partners. It was with the active involvement of the Chairmanship-in-Office that the joint ISCE-Japan Conference, on the subject of ‘Identification and Effective Prevention of Conflicts in the New Security Conditions: European Security Mechanisms and Asia’s Security’ (Tokyo, March 15th-16th, 2004), was prepared and conducted. The Conference adopted recommendations for further expanding the OSCE partnership with the countries of Asia.

The persistence of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office in carrying out the mission of the OSCE Group for Support of Elections on Afghanistan has enabled the provision of genuine assistance to a partner state in a crucial moment of its historical development. This has been the first significant act of the OSCE outside its geographic area, which made it possible to identify and explore the Organisation’s considerable resources for supporting democratic processes on a wider, global scale. The OSCE actions have been highly appreciated by the Afghan leadership, which also invited the organisation to participate in observer status in the parliamentary elections scheduled for spring 2005.

With the support of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office, Mongolia received the status of a partner state on December 2nd, 2004, which has created additional opportunities for strengthening the role and influence of OSCE in Asia.

The Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office aspired to give a new impetus to the Organisation’s partnership with the countries of the Mediterranean; during its term, for a second year running the OSCE Mediterranean Workshop was held in the southern Mediterranean – in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt (November 17th-18th, 2004). This has enabled the adoption of significant recommendations for further development of cooperation, including by sending OSCE missions to monitor presidential elections of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The application by the Palestinian Authority for acquiring the status of partner state and for monitoring the presidential elections in 2005, as well as the application by the Iraqi government for an OSCE observer mission to be sent to monitor the presidential elections on January 30th, 2005, were important milestones marking our efforts to expand the scope of Mediterranean partnership.

Bulgaria’s participation on OSCE
Bulgaria became a participant in the CSCE/OSCE in 1975. In early July, 1999, the Bulgarian government decided to propose the country’s candidacy for the OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office. The Bulgarian bid was unanimously approved by the participants in the Tenth Ministerial Council Meeting in Porto (Portugal) in 2003.

The taking over of the OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office by Bulgaria in 2004, following Bulgaria’s successful completion of a two-year stint on the UN Security Council (2002-2003), came as unquestionable recognition of the country’s heightened international standing, affording it additional opportunities to influence international processes while upholding the European agenda on security issues and the fight against terrorism, and playing a genuine role in conflict prevention in various crisis spots around the globe.

In formulating its priorities, the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office opted for the principle of continuity of the OSCE ‘Troika’ format for the purposes of making sure that the commitments of the member-states are implemented in full. In this context, the priorities of the Dutch Chairmanship-in-Office of 2003 (the fight against terrorism,  trafficking in human beings, arms and drugs; furthering the efforts to address the so-called ‘frozen conflicts’, etc.) remained among the priorities of the Chairmanship-in-Office in 2004.

In the context of the NATO and EU enlargement, the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office strove to promote the role of OSCE as an organisation that serves as a forum for dialogue and decision making, especially on common threats to security.

The reform of OSCE has become the centrepiece of activity in 2004, drawing attention to the OSCE stature and the possible ways of transforming the Organisation.

Also prominent were OSCE actions beyond its immediate scope of activity. The Organisation undertook its first operation outside the OSCE area by sending a team to assist the presidential elections in Afghanistan on October 9th, 2004. Ties of cooperation with the Mediterranean and Asian partnership deepened, while Mongolia was admitted as the latest OSCE partner.

The Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office made persistent efforts to strike the right balance between the political-military, economic, human and environmental dimensions in the Organisation's work.

The results of the OSCE activity and specifically of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office in 2004 were reiterated at the 12th Annual Meeting of OSCE Foreign Ministers, held in Sofia on December 6th-7th, 2004. The Meeting came as the climax of the one-year period of efforts on the part of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office. The participants in the Sofia Meeting of OSCE Foreign Ministers adopted a Declaration on Preventing and Combating Terrorism, a Declaration on the Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, and a declaration on the 60th Anniversary of the end of WWII. The Meeting endorsed 18 decisions on a wide range of issues, including reform of OSCE, the fight against terrorism, curbing trafficking in illegal small arms and light armaments, human trafficking, the promotion of tolerance and non-discrimination, the fight against corruption, etc.