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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon,
Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov,
Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland of the Council of Europe,
Mr. Amre Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League,
Foreign Ministers of Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Sweden,
Representatives of Foundations, NGO’s, leading members of the Media, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen 

I also join in thanking the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Council on Foreign Affairs for organizing this conference

The recent and still ongoing changes in North Africa and the Middle East have been closely followed by the entire OSCE community. 

Many observers have compared these changes to the quest that more than 20 years ago prompted democratic, economic, security and human rights revolutions in our part of the world.

Certainly there are similarities in the goals and aspirations of the popular movements in your countries and regions and those in Eastern and Central Europe.  

There are, however, significant differences between the conditions in which events in North Africa and the Middle East are taking place, compared with conditions twenty years ago in Eastern Europe, as well as the cultural and political backgrounds to those events. 

These differences serve to remind us that in seeking to apply our experiences to your situation we must act with care and sensitivity. 

 It was a tectonic change that led the heads of state and government of the then Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1990 to declare “a new era of democracy, peace and unity” in the historic Charter of Paris for a New Europe. It was then that participating States began the complex process to “build, consolidate and strengthen democracy as the only system of government of our nations.”

The principles set at Paris were re-iterated and strengthened last December at the OSCE Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan when all OSCE participating States recommitted to the goal of achieving a common security community based on shared democratic values and rule of law principles. 

Our experience demonstrates that progress toward these goals is anything but a simple process.    We in the OSCE understand that true security in our society involves the close interlocking of three comprehensive dimensions: security proper, including police, borders, criminal matters, economic opportunity, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedom.

Our Organization has developed an extensive set of practical methods and techniques to carry out reforms. We work by consensus through our Vienna-based Secretariat, with a network of so-called field offices requested by some participating States. These coordinate assistance, guidance and training down to the grass roots levels. We also have three specialized institutions to work with all participating States to develop democratic institutions, support rights and freedoms of minorities and particularly promote the freedom of the media.

On that specific note, the Lithuanian OSCE Chairmanship will sponsor a conference on the Safety of Journalists and freedom of the media in Vilnius on 6-7 June.   I would hope that as many of you, who can do so, would attend this important conference. You are heartily welcome to join us. 

OSCE expertise and experience has become widely recognized in media freedom, police reform, legal and constitutional reforms, strengthening democratic governance and rule of law, fighting corruption, and supporting democratic institution building.  Its electoral assistance has been seen as a “gold standard” in the international community. 

Sharing OSCE norms, principles and commitments, and encouraging Partners to voluntarily implement them has been a raison d’être of the OSCE Partnership for Cooperation. The ongoing changes in North Africa and the Middle East present us with a unique opportunity to translate the spirit of the OSCE Partnership into practice.

During his visit to Tunisia last month, the Chairman in Office, Foreign Minister Azubalis, explored  possible areas  of future cooperation in the fields of elections,  political party training and development in a pluralistic democratic setting,  transparent law-making processes, media development, police reform, migration, and fighting corruption.

In the same spirit I am making available to you as a Conference Document, a general description of the type of practical support OSCE and ODIHR are prepared to extend. 

The Chairman also invited the Tunisian Foreign Minister to address the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, to strengthen Tunisia‘s role as an OSCE Partner for Cooperation.

Minister Ažubalis and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have on several occasions discussed  the need to foster cooperation and a division of labor between the international stakeholders, to avoid duplication and to maximize scarce resources.

Summarizing, the Chairman has publicly declared his hope that the countries in North Africa and the Middle East will emerge from this challenging period as strong, free and modern democracies, worthy of the many thousands of engaged citizens who took to the streets and risked their lives to demand a better future for themselves and their children.

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am not here to provide you with answers.  That is for the panelists and conferees and ultimately your respective societies and governments to struggle with.    Representing the OSCE Chairman in Office, however, I am here to stress that our organization is prepared to respond to your requests for support, to share our experiences and offer appropriate training and guidance as you seek it.    

Those of us from Eastern and Central Europe have an advantage of twenty years to look back on what we have accomplished, where our ideas worked, and the mistakes we made.  We hope this experience can be of benefit to you.

We can be proud of how much we have accomplished.  At the same time we need to remind ourselves that our individual states have changed and developed at different speeds and to different degrees because within the OSCE area, we also reflect different cultural and historic traditions among ourselves --just as do the states of North Africa and the Middle East.  

The OSCE framework has grown over the years, and is still growing.  The process takes time, much more time than I and my fellow political leaders, and political activists recognize or are prepared to accept.  It is important, however, to remember and understand this aspect of what is happening.   Patience is a critical virtue, as we in the OSCE have had to learn.  Perhaps there is nothing more important that we can share with you as you peruse your own future course than to counsel and encourage patience as you move forward. 

As we meet and discuss today and tomorrow, and hopefully many more times in the future, I would suggest that despite differences in history and cultural traditions, we do share specific high ideals and goals in common.  Keeping that in mind, we have much to share and learn from one another.  This can not be a matter of “one size fits all,” but an appreciation for communality in our differences, respect for one another, and a willingness to resolve difference through peaceful dialogue.  It is necessary to embrace open, transparent democratic practices, within a framework of the rule of law, and a respect for human rights. That is where we can find and develop a broad, cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship.