With maritime and inland waterways traffic on the increase, enhanced cooperation is needed to meet security and environmental concerns. That is the challenge facing participants of the OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum, which opened in Vienna on 28 January.
Finnish Environment Minister Kimmo Tiilikainen emphasized the link between environment and security in his keynote address at the start of the Forum: "The environment is at the forefront of international policy-making and will have a growing bridge-building role. This role, at its best, will contribute towards the consolidation of peace, security and stability in the whole OSCE area and beyond," he said.
"The purpose and domain of the OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum is to address security-related, environmental and economic aspects, and their interlinkages in the given context. This broadly defined mandate, although demanding, provides a special opportunity."
Security and the environmental and economic aspects of maritime and inland waterways cooperation is one of the priorities of the 2008 Finnish OSCE Chairmanship.
The Forum brings together policy makers, high-level experts and representatives of the OSCE's 56 participating States to discuss how to efficiently cooperate and coordinate efforts to reduce environmental harm. Topics on the agenda for the two-day meeting include the international legal framework and existing regional and inter-regional cooperation mechanisms in the field.
The OSCE's role in enhancing this cooperation and finding practical solutions to the challenges arising from the increase in maritime and inland waterways traffic, as well as specific issues raised by landlocked countries, will also be discussed.
"Secure and environmentally sustainable maritime, inland waterway and multimodal transportation networks have an important role in enhancing regional security and economic cooperation, and in promoting trade and generating economic development across the OSCE area," said Bernard Snoy, the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities.
The Vienna event is the first part of the OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum, with the second to be held 19 to 21 May in Prague. The First Preparatory Conference to the Forum was held in Helsinki in September 2007 and the second will be held in Ashgabad, Turkmenistan from 6 to 7 March 2008.
