Ministry for Foreign Affairs honoring the 30th jubilee of the signing of the CSCE Final Act
Press release 179/2005
26 May, 2005
The Final Act of the Conference on European Security and Cooperation (CSCE) was signed in Helsinki on 1 August, 1975. The organisation that transformed into the Organization for European Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in 1995 is still of current interest for Europe, and continues its work to promote peaceful change and security in Europe. Finland has communicated its readiness to hold the presidency of the OSCE in the year 2008. The decision will be made in the OSCE meeting of foreign ministers in Ljubljana in December this year.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is celebrating the jubilee of the CSCE by exhibitions and book projects as well as by organising a jubilee seminar.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has put together a small exhibition on the basis of the CSCE exhibition, opened in the Urho Kekkonen Museum Tamminiemi in Helsinki today, 26 May. This exhibition will be displayed in Finnish embassies abroad during the year 2005. The tour will begin from Washington in July and towards the end of the month the exhibition will move to Vienna, Austria.
On the Finnish initiative the Centre for OSCE Research (CORE) at the Hamburg University will draft a booklet in English presenting the body of OSCE norms, development of its operations and the current challenges the organisation is facing. The Ministry has also commissioned an evaluation report handling the role and future of the OSCE from the Centre for OSCE Research at the Hamburg University. The report will be drafted with support of an international group of experts and it will be finished in July. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is also assisting the Helsinki Committee, which is publishing a book about the OSCE. The Helsinki Committee has compiled a book “For more humane Europe”, in which a group of writers critically evaluate the work the OSCE has carried out particularly within the arena of humane dimension. The book is scheduled to be published on 28 July, i.e. on the week preceding the actual 30th Jubilee celebrations.
On the actual anniversary of the CSCE, on 1 August, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will be organising a celebration at the Finlandia Hall commemorating the signing of the Final Act of the CSCE with President of the Republic Tarja Halonen and OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Slovenia Dimitrij Rupel as the main speakers. The official celebration will be followed by a panel discussion about the future questions of European and worldwide security. The names of the four panellists will be confirmed later.
Additional information: Finland’s permanent representative in the OSCE, Ambassador Aleksi Härkönen, tel. +46 1 535 1034, and Director Anu Laamanen Ryter, Unit for Civilian Crisis Management, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5357