[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE FUTURE OF THE OSCE MEDITERRANEAN PARTNERS FOR COOPERATION
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HEARING
before the
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JULY 23, 2009
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Printed for the use of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe
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Available via http://www.csce.gov
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COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
SENATE HOUSE
BENJAMIN CARDIN, Maryland, ALCEE HASTINGS, Florida,
Chairman Co-Chairman
CHRISTOPHER DODD, Connecticut EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER,
SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia New York
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina MIKE McINTYRE, North Carolina
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina
JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire JOSEPH PITTS, Pennsylvania
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island ROBERT ADERHOLT, Alabama
TOM UDALL, New Mexico DARRELL ISSA, California
EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
MICHAEL POSNER, Department of State
ALEXANDER VERSHBOW, Department of Defense
THE FUTURE OF THE OSCE MEDITERRANEAN PARTNERS FOR COOPERATION
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JULY 23, 2009
COMMISSIONERS
Page
Hon. Alcee Hastings, Co-Chairman, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 1
Hon. Benjamin Cardin, Chairman, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 3
Hon. Mike McIntyre, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 4
Hon. Darrell Issa, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 5
Hon. Robert Aderholt, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 13
MEMBERS
Hon. Gwen Moore, Commissioner, a member of Congress from the
State of Wisconsin............................................. 5
WITNESSES
William Hudson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern
Affairs, U.S. Department of State.............................. 5
Sotiris Roussos, Personal Representative on Mediterranean Partner
Affairs, OSCE.................................................. 13
Joao Soares, President, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.............. 16
THE FUTURE OF THE OSCE MEDITERRANEAN PARTNERS FOR COOPERATION
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JULY 23, 2009
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe,
Washington, DC.
The hearing was held from 2:01 to 3:25 p.m. EST in 210
Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC, Hon. Alcee
Hastings, Co-Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation
in Europe, presiding.
Commissioners present: Hon. Benjamin Cardin, Chairman,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Alcee
Hastings, Co-Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation
in Europe; Hon. Mike McIntyre, Commissioner, Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Darrell Issa,
Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe;
and Hon. Robert Aderholt, Commissioner, Commission on Security
and Cooperation in Europe.
Members present: Hon. Gwen Moore, a Member of Congress from
the State of Wisconsin.
Witnesses present: William Hudson, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, U.S. Department of State;
Sotiris Roussos, Personal Representative on Mediterranean
Partner Affairs, OSCE; and Joao Soares, President, OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly.
HON. ALCEE HASTINGS, CO-CHAIRMAN,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Hastings. It's my distinct honor to convene this
hearing of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
on ``The Future of the OSCE Mediterranean Partners for
Cooperation.'' I welcome you all here today--and so does the
thunder, apparently--and commend the leadership of my good
friend who will be here shortly--who is here now--of Senator
Ben Cardin, who serves as chair of the Helsinki Commission, and
my fellow commissioners. We've been joined by Mr. McIntyre and
others are coming, I believe.
For the past several years I have served as Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly's
special representative for Mediterranean affairs. And I've had
the distinct pleasure of having been appointed by President
Emeritus Lennmarker in that capacity, and by the now-president
of the parliamentary assembly, Joao Soares, also, to the same
capacity.
The objectives are to enhance the long-standing
relationship between the OSCE participating states and the
Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation that extends back to the
Helsinki act of 1975 of the Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe, now the OSCE.
In the succeeding decades the OSCE Participating States and
their Mediterranean partners have worked to increase mutual
confidence and develop economic and environmental cooperation
in order to promote security and stability throughout Europe
and the Mediterranean basin. It is through this unique forum
that Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco--as my friend from
Morocco enters the room--and Tunisia continue develop their
capacity for leadership in the region, all the while exchanging
expertise with the OSCE participating states.
Near the end of 2008, I toured all of the Mediterranean
Partner states, with the exception of Jordan--which I have
visited on many occasions. During discussions with my
interlocutors, beginning in Morocco, that I proposed bringing
them and asking them to come to Washington to have a candid
discussion about participation mechanisms for their partnership
with the OSCE and how these might be improved.
Over the past two days, the proposal that I made last
December became a reality. High-level delegations of
parliamentarians and dignitaries and academics from the OSCE
Mediterranean Partners states--of all of the partner states--
gathered here in the Capitol Visitor Center for the Helsinki
Commission's ``Seminar on OSCE Mediterranean Partner
Engagement.''
These delegations were joined by the gentleman who's
walking there, now--my president of the OSCE parliamentary
assembly, Joao Soares of Portugal--and by previously-mentioned
president-emeritus Goran Lennmarker of Sweden and vice
president of the OSCE, Jerry Grafstein of Canada, and
representatives of the Greek chair in office, and
representatives of the future Kazakh chair in office, and
Ambassador Jonas Hafstrom on behalf of the Swedish presidency
of the European Union.
Sessions for this seminar included notable panelists, such
as Paul Fritch of the OSCE Secretariat, an exciting
presentation this morning by Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center
for Muslim Studies, Barry Pavel of the National Security
Council, and a thought-provoking professor, Dr. Ian Lesser, of
the German Marshall Fund. Our discussions with these panelists
centered on OSCE Mediterranean Partner participation
mechanisms, security in the Mediterranean, youth empowerment
and challenges of the OSCE region, respectively.
I'm going to ask unanimous consent that the rest of my
statement be made a part of the record in the interest of time
and because so many of my colleagues are here. But we are
joined by distinguished witnesses who will help us to
synthesize the topics discussed throughout our seminar as well
as share their vision for future or empowerment of the OSCE
Mediterranean Partners.
I'll identify our panelists after I hear from colleagues
and I'd like now to ask the chair of the CSCE, my good friend
from the U.S. Senate, Senator Cardin, if he would make opening
remarks.
HON. BENJAMIN CARDIN, CHAIRMAN,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Cardin. Well, to Congressman Hastings: First let me
thank you for arranging the Mediterranean Partners meeting here
in Washington. It was an extremely important opportunity for
our partners to get together and exchange their views. I also
want to thank you for chairing today's hearing as wein the U.S.
Helsinki Commission look at the Mediterranean Partners and ways
in which we can enhance our effectiveness within OSCE.
Let me apologize from the beginning that the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee will be meeting shortly with the prime
minister of Iraq so I'm going to have to excuse myself to
attend that meeting. But engagement with our colleagues
representing the OSCE Mediterranean Partner countries has been
a particular focus of the OSCE parliamentary assembly for many
years as evidenced by the work of its successive special
representatives on Mediterranean affairs and the assembly's
annual Mediterranean seminars, which are a critical part of the
agenda of the assembly's fall meetings.
We and our Mediterranean Partners have paid particular
attention to the issues of security and economic cooperation.
In 2002, the parliamentary assembly convened its first
conference dedicated to ensuring peace, democracy and
prosperity in the Mediterranean region. Since 1993, security,
trade and economic cooperation have been the subjects of debate
during the assembly's annual sessions and have been addressed
in the final declarations of those meetings.
Most recently, the Vilnius Declaration ratified at the
conclusion of the parliamentary assembly's annual meeting this
month in Lithuania includes a resolution on Mediterranean free
trade authored by our good friend Senator Jerry Grafstein of
Canada. This resolution calls for the creation of the
Mediterranean Economic Commission with the mandate to reduce
trade barriers and facilitate the transition to a knowledge-
based economy in the countries of the region. It also
recommends the creation of a Mediterranean agricultural
marketing board with the aim of creating jobs in the
agriculture sector for young people, which could be a valuable
part of the security in that region.
During my service as chair of the parliamentary assembly's
committee on economic affairs, science, technology and
environment, the committee also focused on trade and economic
cooperation in the Mediterranean region. As many of you may
recall, during the 2005 annual session of the parliamentary
assembly in Washington, D.C., our committee hosted a panel
discussion on developing trade and economic cooperation with
our Mediterranean partners, which featured an address by the
ambassador of Morocco to the United States. The Washington
declaration adopted at the conclusion of the 2005 annual
session contained a resolution addressing both soft and hard
threats to security, enhancing economic cooperation, dealing
with the challenges of migration and promoting tolerance in the
Mediterranean region.
So as you can see, within the OSCE and within the OSCE
parliamentary assembly, we've made significant progress in
advancing the interests of our Mediterranean partners within
the context of the commitments within OSCE. What I have urged
is taking a look at how we can further that process.
It's interesting, Mr. Chairman, that the commission held a
hearing in 1993, the U.S. Helsinki Commission. At that time, we
looked at creating an OSCME, an Organization for Security and
Cooperation in the Middle East because we thought that the
Helsinki process was so valuable that the direct adoption of
that process by the countries within the Middle East could have
direct benefit as it had within Europe.
So we suggested that. I do recall we heard from, Abba Eban,
the former foreign affairs minister of Israel. We also heard
from the distinguished ambassador from Egypt, Ahmed Maher, el-
Sahad, at that time, both favorable towards the concept. I have
since travelled to the region many times and have talked to the
leaders of the countries in the region. They all think that
this makes great sense so--and I think we have one or two
options that I really do encourage the witnesses today to
comment on this.
We could try to strengthen the role of the Mediterranean
Partners in the countries within the region within the OSCE
framework. We could look at a separate framework, which
incorporates similar ideas although there's no cookie-cutter
approach. I know we have to tailor it towards specific needs of
the region. But I do think, looking at the historic problems in
the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, that using the
experience since 1975 with what we've been able to do in CSCE
gives us hope that we could make further advancements in this
area. And I look forward to the witnesses today and I hope that
we'll be able to continue to make progress in promoting peace,
security and economic well-being within the Mediterranean area.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you very much, Senator. I'd also like
to recognize the secretary general of the parliamentary
assembly of OSCE, Spencer Oliver, who has joined us as well. I
now turn to Congressman McIntyre for any statement you may wish
to make, Mike.
HON. MIKE MCINTYRE, COMMISSIONER,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. McIntyre. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll simply say, in
the interest of time, we do welcome our friends who have joined
us. We especially appreciate your leadership, Mr. Chairman, in
working with our Mediterranean partners. I know a couple of
years ago it was my pleasure when we were in Vienna together to
go to a special reception for our Mediterranean partners and
how pleased we are to see these types of relationships growing
and continuing and being enhanced. And we're so glad to have
you as well as others who are here from the OSCE to join us
here in our nation's capital. Thank you.
Mr. Hastings. Just like the partner states participate in
the OSCE, our CSCE has by now designated an auxiliary group but
a very active member of the American delegation when we attend
the fore of the parliamentary assembly is Gwen Moore from
Wisconsin, my colleague. Gwen.
HON. GWEN MOORE, A MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF
WISCONSIN
Ms. Moore. Thank you so much. I am so grateful that we have
this opportunity to meet with our Mediterranean partners. I
think that the urgency of developing these dialogues among
parliamentarians and at NATO, the European Union and OSCE is
really trumped by the patience that our past presidents and
others have shown and our partners have shown in coming to the
United States. We welcome you here and I am anxious to hear the
testimony of our panels.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you very much, our congresswoman. We'll
hold just one minute for Commissioner Darrell Issa if he has
any statement that he may wish to make. Come over here,
Darrell.
HON. DARRELL ISSA, COMMISSIONER,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Issa. Chairman, I waive any opening statement
considering my arrival.
Mr. Hastings. All right. Thank you so much, Congressman--
that allows us to get to the first panel. And we are joined by
Ambassador William Hudson, the acting deputy assistant
secretary for Near Eastern Affairs of the U.S. Department of
State. Ambassador Hudson has extensive experience in the region
as a senior career Foreign Service officer and recently,
ambassador of the United States to Tunisia where I had the good
fortune of visiting Tunisia when he was ambassador and was
hosted extremely well by he and the extraordinarily capable
staff at the United States Embassy. The ambassador's curriculum
vitae is outside. I won't go into all the details. And so
ambassador, you have the floor.
WILLIAM HUDSON, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR NEAR EASTERN
AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Mr. Hudson. Thank you very much. Distinguished chairman,
members of the commission, I want to thank you for calling this
important hearing and for providing us an opportunity to
participate in this exchange on engagement of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe with our Mediterranean
partners. I also welcome the interest of our partners in
participating in this forum with members of the United States
Congress on an issue that is vital to many of our shared
interests.
The OSCE's special relationship with the six Mediterranean
Partners for Cooperation goes back to the start of the Helsinki
process. In 1975, the Helsinki final act included a
Mediterranean chapter emphasizing the close links between the
security of Europe and the security in the Mediterranean
region. This security link has been underscored in subsequent
OSCE documents such as the 1999 charter for European security
and the 2003 strategy to address threats to security and
stability in the 21st century. The OSCE participating states
have committed themselves to exploring new avenues of
cooperation and interaction as well as to explaining the scope
of broad exchanges on OSCE norms, principles and commitments.
Through ongoing dialogue and joint activities with the
Mediterranean partners, the OSCE has successfully shared its
unique, comprehensive, three-dimensional approach to security
with the Mediterranean partners on a number of topics including
confidence and security-building measures, OSCE as a platform
for dialogue in fostering norms of behavior, the 21st-century
threats to security and state stability, protecting human
rights and fundamental freedoms as well as linkages between the
environment and security, media and new technologies and
migration and integration policies.
The annual OSCE Mediterranean conferences, which are
usually hosted by the partner state, provide the opportunity to
exchange views and contribute to further developing the
relationship between the OSCE and the Mediterranean partners.
The conferences are also attended by international
organizations, parliamentarians, academics and importantly,
NGOs, leading to a unique cross-fertilization of ideas and
recommendations.
In fact, a number of very interesting recommendations came
out of the 2008 conference in Amman, Jordan, including
suggestions to promote closer involvement of civil society in
counterterrorism efforts to address climate change and
desertification through regional cooperation and to support the
creation of civil society networks in the Mediterranean region.
The United States is very interested in following up on these
and other recommendations.
Mediterranean partners have many opportunities to get
involved in the work of the OSCE. In addition to attending and
participating in a wide range of OSCE meetings and conferences,
they are also invited to send observers to electoral missions
of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, who
have received training in Warsaw to that end. Thanks to the
OSCE's partnership fund, we now have increased opportunities
for conducting joint projects. The United States already has
used this fund to support two projects and hopes to be able to
contribute to it more in the future.
We are particularly encouraged by a lively discussion at
the June 2009 workshop conducted in Vienna on the topic of
media. This workshop, which was based on a suggestion made by
Egypt, brought together more than 35 experts from the OSCE and
the Mediterranean regions to discuss challenges and best
practices in setting up and promoting mechanisms to encourage
free speech. Such exchanges provide us with an opportunity to
learn and work together to foster security and stability in our
countries.
The United States is interested in increasing cooperation
with the Mediterranean partners in all three OSCE dimensions
and in hearing Mediterranean perspectives on broader issues as
well. We sincerely look forward to engaging with our partners
on issues such as their approach to the reintegration of Iraq
into the community of nations and to ways to resolve tensions
over oil and gas supply and demand issues in Eastern Europe.
The Mediterranean Partner countries are at the crossroads
of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Their historical and
existing ties with other regions have distinctively positioned
them to play a key role on issues ranging from regional
conflicts such as Chad and Sudan to Middle East peace,
migration, terrorism and more. The Mediterranean Partners have
played a positive role in both the regional and the world arena
and have the potential to make an even greater contribution. We
believe the onset of a new U.S. administration offers a new
chance to engage in the OSCE partnership and to intensify and
reinforce our relationships in this critical area.
The Obama administration has shown its willingness to
listen and to think critically about the United States foreign
policy priorities and objectives. In President Obama's June 4th
speech in Cairo, he said that he had come to seek a new
beginning between the United States and Muslims around the
world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect. We have
seen a promising start to the new administration's engagement
with the Mediterranean. Secretary Clinton met with the foreign
ministers of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia on the margins of the
Gaza Reconstruction Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh in March.
She used that opportunity to discuss regional cooperation
and other concerns of mutual interest. Special envoy for Middle
East peace, Senator Mitchell, subsequently visited the region
to solicit their ideas and support for peace. We continue to
look for opportunities to engage our North African partners
bilaterally and regionally on a wide range of issues, including
migration, terrorism economic cooperation and regional
security.
In doing this, we are committed to working with the OSCE
via the Mediterranean Partners as well as other multilateral
fora arrangements, to ensure that our efforts with the
countries of the region are consistent and mutually
reinforcing. The OSCE participating states and the
Mediterranean Partners should work together productively to
confront the challenges at hand, and promote security,
stability, and individual freedoms throughout the region and
throughout the world.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and I'm
happy to take any questions that you may have.
Mr. Hastings. I'll turn the questioning now to Chairman
Cardin.
Mr. Cardin. I thank you for that courtesy. Let me if I
might, secretary, just cover a couple points. The OSCE, has had
an incredible amount of success considering it's a consensus
body, depends upon voluntary compliance, basically, yet has
rather strong commitments as far as human rights, security and
economic and environmental commitments.
When we take a look at what it's been able to accomplish in
avoiding conflicts through its missions; when we look at the
technical assistance that's made available to member states
whether it deals with migration or it deals with border
security--and the list goes on and on and on--when you take a
look at the progress that it has made on basic freedoms
including journalism and making sure that we put a spotlight
where countries are not doing, what they should be doing and
now taking on the issues of the Internet and what we need to do
about Internet freedom of expression.
And then you take a look at some of the initiatives of the
United States commission on trafficking in persons and anti-
Semitism and anti-Muslim activities and the fact that we can
bring consensus among all states to an action plan in these
areas where I think it initially people thought that would not
be possible.
I mention that all because I really do believe this model
can work in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. And I guess
my question to you--it seems to me the Mediterranean partners
have been a very valuable addition to the proud record of the
OSCE. But we should perhaps look at either expanding that model
or a separate model for the Middle East particularly.
One option could be to strengthen the roles of our partners
in the OSCE itself. Give them a stronger voice within the OSCE.
Another suggestion could be to expand the number of country
states that are partners within the OSCE. I have personally
thought that Pakistan--partner in Asia acknowledged--it would
be nice to have them in our organization particularly since we
do have Afghanistan currently as a partner.
Or we could look at a separate organization using the OSCE
as a model but that takes time in order to go through all the
diplomatic hurdles in order to achieve a different
organization. So I would just like to get your view as to how
you see the future from the point of view of either
strengthening the OSCE--looking at separate organizations or do
you think that the dynamics in the Middle East are such that it
would be difficult to have a consensus organization with the
type of record that we've seen within OSCE?
Mr. Hudson. Thank you for that question. The OSCE is a very
interesting organization because as it brings together the
Israelis with the Jordanians and the countries of the Maghreb,
they go to meetings together. They have an opportunity to see
each other face to face. It's a very positive forum for doing
that kind of thing.
Anything we can do to push forward on dialogue and
participation in that regard would be a good thing. And this is
a personal view, and I can give you a more official answer, if
you like--but my own view is a consensus, an organization that
works on consensus, would find some of the problems in the
Middle East, particularly issues on the peace process
challenging and problematic to deal with.
Mr. Cardin. I just want to point out, I'll never forget the
discussion I had with former Prime Minister Rabin in Jerusalem
on this subject. And I sort of said the same thing to him. I
said, how would you like to be a member of an organization
where there are numerous Arab states and Israel? And he said he
welcomed that.
He says if we have a chance to talk, if we can sit at the
same table together and better understand each other and if we
can make progress on economic issues and if we can make
progress on basic rights and bringing down trade barriers and
making that type of progress--and if our people can get to know
each other better, the rest will come.
I don't think anyone expects that this process will produce
the peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. That's
going to happen, we hope, as a result of direct negotiations
with significant international interest. We understand that.
But as far as an ongoing relationship in the Middle East, one
day we hope we'll see peace in that region. But for prosperity
and economics and human rights and security to really take
hold, there's got to be some more permanency in the
relationships.
And that's why the former prime minister thought this made
sense. By the way, King Hussein of Jordan felt the same way
when I met with him. So I know there are new leaders but they
seem to be saying the same thing. And I just wonder if the
United States should be more actively involved on parallel
tracks, not the substitute the peace initiative, not to
substitute the initiatives that are currently underway. But on
a parallel track to try to figure out how we can really get
more direct communications on basic OSCE principles among the
countries in the region.
Mr. Hudson. Thank you for that. As you know, President
Obama has emphasized our willingness to have dialogue with
mutual respect among all of our friends and allies overseas. I
think our position should be that we would encourage any kind
of regional organization that can bring Israelis together with
their Arab neighbors for discussion and addressing mutual
problems that all those countries have.
Mr. Cardin. I'll just make one last point on this. It was
pointed out yesterday by Mr. Lennmarker about the historic
problems within Europe as to why the OSCE came about, because
of the conflicts within that continent being unparalleled in
the history of the world.
The differences among the Arab states in the Middle East
are dramatic. It's not just Israel versus the Arab states;
there are historic conflicts among our partner countries that I
would think the pattern of OSCE and the progress that was made
in OSCE contributing to the overall stability in Europe could
be extremely helpful in leading us to a much more stable Middle
East.
I would just encourage the United States and all of our
member countries to look at what has happened since 1975 in
Europe and use that as an example of what we can achieve
particularly in the Middle East. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you very much, Chairman Cardin. I'd
like to take cognizance of the fact we've got a round of
questions for everybody but we've been joined by our
commissioner Robert Aderholt who was just elected as the vice
chair of one of the committees of the parliamentary assembly,
and I'm very pleased that that occurred.
Ambassador Hudson, you mentioned a partnership fund, OSCE
partnership fund, and you cited to the fact that the United
States has already accessed our two projects. I'm interested in
two things--what are those projects and what do we intend, in
the United States to do, to ensure that we are plus up the
partnership fund?
Mr. Hudson. Thank you. The two projects involved bringing
people from Mediterranean Partner countries up to Warsaw for
training on human rights issues. And we consider the
partnership fund to be a very positive development. It allows
us to, as I said, to develop projects where we can bring some
of the Mediterranean Partner countries, individuals in those
countries, up to important seminars, important training
sessions. So we're very supportive of this.
I can take the question sir if you'd like on what our
future funding would be and get back to you.
Mr. Hastings. All right. If you would then, I'll have one
other question in this round. As I indicated to you we've
concluded two days of seminars with a robust delegations from
our partner states. The continuing theme or consistent theme
that arose was the difficulty of negotiating the multiple
dialogues led by different actors in the region and principally
the OSCE and the European Union and NATO. My question would be
what roles do you think for our Mediterranean dimensions of
these various entities should play to encourage synergy among
their various activities.
As I listened over the course of the last two days,
ambassador, I can't help but agree with all of the sentiment
that was expressed most sincerely by virtually each delegation
that it is very hard to keep up with who's on first and what's
on second. They didn't put it that way, but I'm just putting in
the plain old vernacular.
And in addition to that, if we start with the Barcelona
process and go all the way through, every--and it was put
bluntly by one delegation--every time we come up with a new
institution or a new program we never seem to complete that
before we start a new institution or program. So implementing
plans--I kept referencing Sarkozy. But implementing a plan and
trying to keep up with the dialogue and the different
organizations. What's your take on that?
Mr. Hudson. Well, I sympathize with the delegations who
express their concerns to you because when I was ambassador in
Tunisia, we had the Barcelona process, we had the neighbors
process, we had the OSCE process. So I can understand their
confusion and they have different delegations coming to them
all the time with--but these delegations are involved in
different kinds of processes all sort of hitting the same basic
issues of political military environment and the economy and
human development.
So all these organizations sort of have the same focus. It
would be nice to find a way--I don't personally have an idea of
how this could be--but you've hit on a very important
coordinating problem that we have in that region that needs to
be addressed in some way.
Mr. Hastings. Well, one thing that I'll just float that my
luncheon guests were discussing was the possibility of having a
first among equals type structure that would have say two
members from the European Union, two from OSCE, two from NATO
and two from each of the member states to assist as
transmitters and receivers for coordination and collaboration.
Otherwise, clearly what winds up is a lot of duplication
and at some point we reach diminishing returns because our
partner states lose interest because they can't quite keep up
with who it is that they're dealing with. I won't belabor it
because we have so many of my other colleagues that I would
hope would go forward. I'm just taking them in the order that
they came, and Mr. McIntyre.
Mr. McIntyre. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you again
for this time today. When we think about the Helsinki
Commission's recent seminar that we had parliamentarians and
dignitaries from throughout the OSCE Mediterranean Partners,
one consistent thing that was raised was a difficulty of
negotiating the multiple dialogues led by different actors.
When we look at the European Union, we look at NATO and of
course OSCE, what do you think the Mediterranean dimensions of
these various entities should play to encourage the synergy
among these various activities?
Mr. Hudson. Well, that gets at the issue that Congressman
Hastings brought up which is sort of a fatigue in some of these
Mediterranean Partner countries because they have so many
people coming to them all the time. They'll have a NATO
delegation, they'll have a Barcelona process delegation, they
have an EU component--how that is coordinated--it's an
important issue which I think has to be addressed by the
international community and particularly by the member states
in the OSCE and the member states of NATO and the EU.
I don't have a good resolution on that but I would say we
would encourage, our policy would be to encourage the dialogue
in that regard so that we could coordinate all these efforts in
that region so that they would all be more effective.
Mr. Cardin. All right. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
ambassador for your sage testimony. Not to be redundant--I was
wondering, you mentioned a great many important issues that are
of interest to the United States and certainly to the OSCE: the
re-entry of Iraq into the community of nations; the
apportionment and availability of oil and gas; Gaza
reconstruction--certainly you mentioned that the Mediterranean
Partners were at the crossroads of the world.
I am wondering, in view of the fatigue that you just
mentioned of all this interaction with the European Union and
NATO, do you have any specific recommendations for OSCE in sort
of drilling down on any been focusing in or honing in on one of
these issues that we could be particularly helpful with?
Mr. Hudson. Thank you. I don't have an answer for you
today, but I would like to take this issue back to the
Department of State because it is clearly very important and to
give you an answer about a strategy that we might follow to
address this important issue.
Mr. Issa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ambassador, you are
either very fortunate or you've managed to simply end up in
what has historically been the hot seat. The deputy assistant
secretaries for Near East inevitably have a war or some
humanitarian crisis during their tenure, no matter how long or
short. Congratulations, you haven't had one yet.
But to that end, and Congresswoman Moore said it pretty
well when she talked about Gaza reconstruction, there are some
residual effects that are on your watch: the landmine issues,
the cluster bomb issues in Lebanon, the lingering effects of
the takeover by Hamas of Gaza and the inability to reengage on
some peer-to-peer level between the Palestinians and the
Israelis.
This organization is dedicated to human rights; it's
dedicated to democracies that represent their people. We
function under the rule of law and for their people. So it's a
particular frustration when I look throughout North Africa and
around the Levant that there's more work to do there than in
the countries that we presently are engaged with.
Your point was very good and you're absolutely right.
Normally we can't even bring the Israelis and the Palestinians
together because one insists on being a nation and then insists
that the other not be present.
Two, we have the obvious challenge that if there were
consensus possible; A, they wouldn't need us; and, B, it
wouldn't be where we always are putting so much of our energy.
But having said that, how can this organization bring these
disparate groups on a consistent basis into a relationship
where they can see how the rest of our system works and be not
studied by us from the outside, even though they can't be full
members on the inside at the present time. What would you
suggest that we begin exploring if we're going to work with you
as partners?
Mr. Hudson. We have a real opportunity now with the
partnership fund and what we need, in my view is--we have a
mechanism which brings together the Israelis and their near
neighbors, Jordan, other Arab states as I'm sure you're aware--
Tunisia has always been very active in the peace process as has
Morocco.
Mr. Issa. I'm not sure I would be as diplomatic as you.
They've always insisted on having a role, a seat at the table
and particular cuts of the pie, but please.
Mr. Hudson. The OSCE presents a mechanism that's already
there to bring these countries together to discuss issues of
mutual concern and interest. That is where the real value added
is--instead of talking about very, very difficult issues that
we confront in the Middle East peace process, this organization
can start talking about the environment and the economy. There
are lots of interesting issues there and issues where all the
Mediterranean Partner countries have similar interests and
concerns.
So you can start discussions at that level and that often
can lead to something else when countries suddenly realize that
they can cooperate on a certain level of issues that sometimes
encourages cooperation above. So we would encourage the
bringing these people into a process and through the
partnership fund we'll be able to do more and more of that.
That's our hope.
Mr. Issa. And you mentioned Morocco particularly. Morocco,
as I'm sure you're more aware than I, really has the mandate
for Jerusalem. Well, Jordan has both historic occupation and a
constant interest including of course in the Palestinians. Is
there a role we could play to bring them together from a
standpoint of a deteriorating situation both for tourism and
for pilgrims in the more less tourism, true pilgrim sense, to
the holy lands? Is that something that you think this group
could use as a bridge before we could take the next steps and
the next steps that we usually go to Sharm and talk about?
Mr. Hudson. Well, thank you for that. I don't have an
answer for you on that today but I'd be happy to take that
question and come back to you with something on that. I will
tell you that Senator Mitchell has been very active with the
Moroccans as he begins his peace process activities.
Historically the Moroccans have been very helpful in this
regard.
Mr. Issa. One last question. When you make your follow-up,
if you could give us, if you will, the best way--and I know
Senator Mitchell is doing a good job with shuttle diplomacy,
and that's usually how it works. You go to Morocco, you go to
Israel, you go back to Morocco and so on. Is there a better
dynamic to bring the parties together in some sort of a forum
that we could potentially facilitate some direct dialogue,
perhaps even with our special envoy.
Well, he's on my list of czars: high title, questionable
portfolio, but lots of backing from the president. But is there
a format that you think we could--when you follow up with the
answer--kind of give it to us because this is an organization
that has the staffing and the wherewithal to potentially go
anywhere in Europe, the Mediterranean and put together
something which might bring parties together that up until now
will only come together at a summit, and as you know all too
well, summits are only after you've agreed to something that
isn't probably going to accomplish anything but you've agreed
to it so you'll sign it.
And the hope is we'd get people together for the dialogue
you spoke of. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you very much.
HON. ROBERT ADERHOLT, COMMISSIONER,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Aderholt. Thank you, sir. I don't have anything right
now.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you very much, Mr. Aderholt.
Ambassador, I genuinely appreciate your time and the State
Department participating with us. I am sure you took notes, but
I will make it a point to as our staff to see to it that you do
have the follow up questions. One of the things that we like to
do is to post on our Web site the particulars of hearings and
briefings that we've had.
So the follow up is important to us and we thank you so
very much, and as always it's good to see you.
We can now ask our second panel if they would join us.
Professor Sotiris Roussos of the University of Peloponnese in
Corinth, Greece. Professor Roussos and I share a similar
mandate in his role as personal representative to the Greek
chair in office of the OSCE for Mediterranean partners. And we
are also going to be joined on our second panel by my good
friend, the honorable Joao Soares, the president of the OSCE
parliamentary assembly who is the former mayor of one of my
favorite cities, Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.
Since we call you up first, professor, we'll begin with
you.
SOTIRIS ROUSSOS, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE ON MEDITERRANEAN
PARTNER AFFAIRS, OSCE
Mr. Roussos. Thank you very much. It is great honor and
pleasure to attend and witness to this hearing of the
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and to share
views on how we can work together in order to make the
Mediterranean Partnership of the OSCE even more effective by
enhancing its potentials and fostering the ties between the
organization and our common Mediterranean neighborhood.
In this regard, Greece as an OSCE participating state of
the Mediterranean attaches great importance to the
strengthening of relations with our Mediterranean partners and
to the promotion of their engagement with the OSCE activities
and mechanisms.
My appointment is underlining the strong will of the Greek
chairmanship to further upgrade these ties as it emerges the
strategic importance of the region for the Euro-Atlantic
security. I would like last to share some reflections and to
present some ideas to be thought upon by the partners honoring
on our contribution on the triptych of synergy, symmetry and
strategy.
Our times are marked by the most profound technical
revolution in global communications which transcends national
cultural boundaries. International partners of mass consumption
with global brand names have become symbolic. Market-oriented
reforms and improvements in the business and investment climate
are facilitating these changes all through the past decade.
In the Mediterranean, the role of the market forces in the
private sector of the economy is expanding although sometimes
it seems not so much. Governments are privatizing state-owned
corporations and the banking, telecommunications and utilities
sections. Trade systems are opening and restrictions on foreign
exchange transactions are being eased.
Moreover, in response to these changes, development
indicators are beginning to improve, especially in the past
decade: Extreme poverty, people living on less than $1 per day
fell by 20 percent by 2000 and 2004. Over the past 15 years,
life expectancy has increased in the region from 60 to 70
years, while the total fertility rate has fallen by 1.8 births
per woman, the largest decline of any region in the world.
Nearly 90 percent of children completed primary education
in 2005, up from 77 percent in 1990. About 90 percent of the
population now has access to electricity and improved water
resources.
Additionally, the enormous explosion in tourism, travel,
commerce, international media and the translation publishing
industries arrive at impressive cross-cultural transactions and
nexuses. Side by side with this cultural globalization we have
the most xenophobic and, in total, manifestations of narrow-
minded nationalists and religious revivals.
According to a study by the joint project of the Dubai
School of Government at the Wilson Center for Development at
Brookings, although there was an economic revival between 2002
and 2008, however there were also other results. The same study
points out that the situation seems more complicated since
education is not a guarantee against unemployment in the Middle
East.
In fact, unemployed rates in some countries are higher
among those youth with relatively high levels of educational
attainment. In Egypt, for example, the unemployment of
university graduates reaches 25 percent whereas amongst
illiterates and those of intermediate education is five and 10
percent respectively.
The same more or less tendencies can be traced in Jordan
and Lebanon. Furthermore, employment prospects for youth in
urban areas remain particularly bleak; nearly 76 percent of
unemployed Moroccan youth live in urban areas.
Urban unemployment nearly doubled between 1982 and 2000,
rising from 12 to 22 percent. About 60 to 70 percent of the
youth in Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere thought this is a bad
time, a bad period, for seeking a job in the Mediterranean and
perhaps this is the beginning of thinking of migration as a
serious alternative.
In both banks of the Mediterranean--not only the south,
also in the north bank of the Mediterranean, in our countries--
much higher education produces instead of conditions of
prosperity, a proletarized, impoverished intelligentsia
deprived and resentful, directing its resentment against the
elites as well as the other--in the face of the migrant, of the
different which as seen as the agent of invasion, cultural and
economic.
But the most startling effect of mass education is the
collapse of earlier hierarchical notions of religious authority
based on claims to demonstrate of fixed bodies of religious
texts, even in countries with state-appointed religious
authorities.
The erosion of traditional religious authorities allows a
wider debate on religion and science, democracy, modernity,
gender, religious and ideological tolerance. The same absence
of authority gives, however, the opportunity to radical and
terrorist networks--personalities and institutions to hijack
religious discourse and fastly undertake the role of champion
of the true believers around the world.
Mediterranean societies have been saved through a large
extent by a complex cultural and social texture created by the
combination of elements of modernity and tradition. Moreover,
identities in the Mediterranean have been and are still being
saved through the construction of separate bodies of knowledge.
And intercultural dialogue should be brave enough to discuss
recent changes in the makeup, activity and the strategy of
religious movements in Islam.
It's attack the role of migration communities in shaping an
intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean and all over the
world. Such a dialogue should cope with a new process of
pluralism and multiculturalism emerging in the great seats of
Europe and through the explore of dynamic interaction between
conflict and coexistence in multicultural cities in the
Mediterranean and Europe.
There is a great importance in the role of press and mass
media in supporting neutral understanding, the role of non-
state actors in shaping ideological visions that affect state
policies in the regions. The media have a serious impact of how
ethnic national identities and social parties influence
regional cooperation in the Mediterranean.
Moreover, the means of information technology and wired
society combined with mass education are capable of involving
Mediterranean people in the discourse and debate about the role
of the state and non-state actors and thus create an
institutional and legal perquisites for the development of the
open and interacting Mediterranean civil society.
The role of gender in the development of such a civil
society and intercultural dialogue is indispensable, especially
the role of women as primary socializer for youth and children
and the importance of women participation in activism in all
walks of life.
Women empowerment can not only increase households' income
but they can become a remedy for social dislocation and the
most useful tool for equitable growth and social cohesion. It
should not and could not however come as an imported recipe
from other parts of the world but it should be homegrown, based
on genuine social forces and the rich cultural tradition of the
area.
Last but not least, the Arab-Israeli conflict and
especially the Israeli-Palestinian tract influences
Mediterranean participation of the OSCE a great deal. Of course
OSCE framework could not solve these issues but it could
exploit the momentum given by the U.S. leadership initiatives
in order to expand the model of Helsinki, to expand the culture
of dialogue, tolerance, comprehension and human rights despite
essential political differences.
At this particular moment, expanding membership of OSCE
Mediterranean Partnership, especially the case of the
Palestinian Authority is not simply to add new countries, but
to expand a paradigm of confidence building and conflict
resolution. Now it is more necessary than ever.
Summarizing through all recent discussions and papers, we
can discern three main principles: flexibility, visibility,
tangible results. Flexibility--it is beyond any doubt that
flexibility is increasing effectiveness, overcoming
sensitivities and various practical obstacles. It has been a
well-taken point in both the Egyptian and the Moroccan paper
that we can concentrate on fewer items. Greece and personally
the foreign minister Ms. Bakoyannis has worked very effectively
on women empowerment through local and regional
entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, an
issue that combines human dimension and economy.
Visibility--it is important to increase the visibility of
the OSCE Mediterranean partnership in the societies of the
partners. We also believe that a young leaders forum would also
provide the partnership with prominent young people in all
walks of life. The first joint seminar of young diplomats from
OSCE Mediterranean partners organized by Greece last year is a
case in point.
Tangible results--concentration on certain issues and
cross-dimensional items can produce recommendation and results,
which might lead to micro-projects funded partly by the fund
and partly by the Mediterranean governments aiming to promoting
the finds of the conference of the Mediterranean societies and
of the OSCE Mediterranean partnership.
Last, I'd like to share a personal reflection. Our
Mediterranean basing can provide us with materials of dual use.
We can use them to erect walls of division but with the same
materials, build bridges of understanding. We all opt for the
latter. Thank you very much.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you very much, professor. I now have
the distinct honor of asking my very good friend, the president
of the parliamentary assembly to give us his reflections, which
I'm sure will be inspired by the two days of activities such
that with his capabilities he probably will summarize for us
all what we have done. Joao.
JOAO SOARES, PRESIDENT, OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY
Mr. Soares. Thank you, dear chairman, for this opportunity.
My first words are to greet you, Congressman Alcee Hastings and
Senator Ben Cardin and all your colleagues from the Helsinki
Commission, for this initiative. This seminar that took place
until late in the morning today from the beginning of the
morning of yesterday was a great moment--a great political
moment. It was very important for us to have this possibility
of discussing with our Mediterranean partners at this eye level
and that's an initiative that has an author and you are the
author of this initiative. And I have, as president of the
parliamentary assembly, to thank you very sincerely and to
greet also our good friend and your colleague, Senator Ben
Cardin, for the work you have done.
That we have--as far as international relations are
concerned--we have in our hands one of the best international
tools that exists, if not the best: the OSCE and of course, its
parliamentary assembly. The OSCE has proven along the 30 years
of its lifetime that it can deal with any difficult situation
and it has dealt in Central Asia, in the Caucasus, in the
Balkans--everywhere from Vancouver to Vladivostok. You know it
better than anybody because you have been a very good president
of our parliamentary assembly like our president emeritus who
is here--Goran Lennmarker--you already quoted.
I strongly, personally believe that we have in our hands
one of the best political, international instruments that has
shown during the 30 years of existence its flexibility, its
capacity to adapting to different situations and the capacity
to deal with difficult challenges even in moments of war. We
have proved it.
And last September, when, during our Mediterranean fall
meeting in Toronto, we had the most wide discussion that
occurred about the Caucasuses--south Caucasuses and war between
Georgia and Russia. And the main problem for us and you gave--
you, Helsinki Commission and you, personally, Ben Cardin and
Alcee Hastings, gave us a great contribution to make our
partner states from the Mediterranean believe that this is the
good instrument to deal with the difficulties we have in our
future. We have no other so good international institution
including United Nations. This is the most effective.
But of course, we have problems and you've touched them
when you made your questions to the ambassador from the
Department of State that was here. There are too many
institutions trying to deal with the Mediterranean problems.
And so, there has to be--and I agree completely with the
suggestion you made and the suggestion that was made to us by
our secretary general Spencer Oliver--there has to be
coordination.
And you, as a very dynamic special representative of the
parliamentary assembly for the Mediterranean and the nice work
that we have done here thanks to you here in Washington, you
are in the best position to reach this coordination between all
these institutions--NATO, Mediterranean parliamentary
assemblies, all the other institutions that deal with the
Mediterranean--without going so far as we go overseas and as we
can go because we have proved it.
We have just proved it here in Washington but we have
proved anywhere else. And it's very good that our Moroccan
colleagues that were in now a seminar proposed to have in
Morocco one seminar, an international conference on the
framework of the OSCE and the OSCE parliamentary assembly about
the water, which is one of the main problems. And I'm very glad
because we have here and since a long time ago, we hadn't the
opportunity of having Israeli parliamentarians, Egyptian
parliamentarians, Jordanian parliamentarians and some other
Arabic countries' parliamentarians discussing in a civilized
manner with each other about the difficulties of the deals and
the challenges that we have in the future.
And that--for me, it's very important. I agree completely
with the quotation that our good colleague and friend Ben
Cardin made of ex-Prime Minister Rabin. We should have, in the
OSCE and in the framework of the parliamentary assembly, the
representatives of the Palestinian Authority for the reasons
that Rabin gave to Ben Cardin when they talked in Jerusalem
about Israel entering the OSCE and entering the parliamentary
assembly.
We have a big opportunity as our Greek friend said to us,
the changes that came with the new American administration and
the new spirit that you, Ben Cardin, and especially President
Obama represent for all of us give us hope--a great hope and a
great expectation. I don't remember, since the last 50 years of
my life, any time where there was so much hope concentrated in
so few people. And I'm sure you are going to stand for this
opportunity--that it's an opportunity for the United States and
it's an opportunity for all of us. And of course, we have now a
very good chairmanship.
We have to recognize that--Dora Bakoyannis and his team of
Greek diplomats and Greek politicians are making a great work
and with a great dynamic. And that the last in former council
of ministers made a new spirit and the new approach and I am
sure that our fall meeting that will take place in Athens and
the council of ministers that will take place in Athens until
the end of this year will represent new possibilities in
approaching the complete questions because I remember our
Egyptian colleagues that were there so experienced
parliamentarians and diplomats that were always pushing us to
look at the concrete matters, not only to the beautiful
resolutions.
And I know that you are also a man of the complete,
Congressman Alcee Hastings: my master and my friend and my
teacher--and that's very important. That's very important--to
be people of the complete and that one of the most important
added values that we can bring to these difficult matters
because there are no miracle solutions for the conflict of the
Middle East between Israel and Palestine and between Israel and
the Arab states.
But there are approaches that could be done and if we
think--and the opportunities that we've lost thanks to some
European authorities at the time and the previous American
administration with the Iraq war and with this terrible error
that was committed--and if we think that all the resources that
we spent--we together spent, unfortunately--in the decision
taken in my home country soil unfortunately, I'm ashamed for
it. But if these resources had been used--human and financial--
had been used in the problems in the Middle East and in the
conflict of the Middle East, Gaza strike would not be like
that. This would not be like that and Lebanon would not be like
that.
And I have a great hope and what I can assure you is that
you can count with the experience of the parliamentarians. You
are very well-placed to know that I have the greatest respect
for diplomats and for other civil servants but the experience
that we have of fighting in elections, fighting for our own
ideas and our own ideals and being defeated sometimes and
winning others--it's the most important added value that we can
give. And I am sure that there is a new spirit as far as the
Mediterranean cooperation is concerned after this Washington
meeting and seminar. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you very much, Mr. President. We'll
turn to my colleagues if they have any questions but I'd like
to take a moment of personal privilege. I have a constituent
that came in the room and Alkia Lagerwal though that perhaps I
didn't see him back there when he slid back on the wall. That's
one of my constituents from south Florida and I'm glad to see
you, young man. And tell your dad I said hello in case I don't
get a chance to talk to you. Mr. Aderholt, do you have any
questions?
Mr. Aderholt. I would like to ask our first panelist if--
you had mentioned something that sort of piqued my interest
there about--you were talking about the young leaders
conference and the young leaders involvement in that. Could you
expand on that a little bit and how that's currently going and
what the situation is and what you foresee coming out of that?
Mr. Roussos. Thank you very much for your question. It's a
very critical one. To help preparing and lead, to help prepare
leaders that can expand the cultural of the OSCE because OSCE's
moves foremost by--it's a matter of culture of guidelines,
culture of dialogue. So we have to help preparing a
leadership--young leadership--that is abiding by this culture.
And one step is the young diplomats joint seminar. It's a
seminar by young diplomats from the OSCE Mediterranean partners
who are coming together in Athens and in Vienna. So there is an
environment between all these, young diplomats who are going
to, struggle against its others perhaps in various forum to
help understand each other and to share perhaps some common
interests and also transplant--in a way, transfer--this shared
interest, this shared culture to their society.
We can actually do the same with other groups of leaders.
We can do it with young entrepreneurs. We can do it with young
women leaders. We have done very interesting--actually last
year in Greece, we had a seminar on women entrepreneurship and
we have seen a great interest by young women entrepreneurs from
the region. So we can expand on this. And not only that--we can
also exploit new technology because we have a big discussion
today about the use of new technology, of telecommunications,
of computer, of being wired. We can use these potentials in
order to create networks. That means these people can
communicate to each other and create networks around the
Mediterranean.
And also, these projects can--these fora, these groups,
these meetings can offer tangible results. We can see the
results. And we do not need big money for this. For example, we
talk about this partnership fund. Partnership fund is not big
money. I mean, it's about half a million euros or so. So this
is not big money, for an organization of a partnership. But in
this kind of targeted initiatives and of this kind of groups,
we can have tangible results with not so much money. This is
what we think about this young leaders' forum.
Mr. Aderholt. Well, certainly it's something to be pursued
and it's a great idea and I would encourage you to.
Mr. Roussos. Actually, there is this idea--and again, we
came back to this--to the coordination. For example, NATO Aspen
Institute has such a program of young leaders. We can have a
bigger one incorporating or coordinating the Aspen Institute,
NATO, young leaders for the Mediterranean and the young leaders
of the OSCE and perhaps a young leaders' forum that is going on
in the new union for the Mediterranean. So this is one example
but we can easily coordinate.
Mr. Hastings. Would the gentleman yield just a moment?
Mr. Aderholt. Sure, go ahead.
Mr. Hastings. Earlier today, we had a presentation from the
German Marshall Fund and they're moving in that direction as
well in dealing with the youth. And I just add that and will
provide you with that----
Mr. Aderholt. Yeah, well that's encouraging to hear. And
yeah, well, thank you, professor, for your comments on that. I
don't have anything else. I just do want to say, again, it's a
great honor to have the president of OSCE parliamentary
assembly with us and thank you for your leadership and it's
good to have you here in Washington and before our panel today.
Thank you.
Mr. Hastings. Ms. Moore.
Ms. Moore. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman and
thank you so much, Mr. President for the honor of having you
here in the United States. I apologize for being out of the
room. I'm working on being in two places at one time--been
working on it for quite a while.
But I was happy to hear you speak about soft security
issues and the need to train and do training and development
with younger people. I want to focus on something that the
Moroccan delegation to the OSCE has circulated a vision paper
talking about the need to engage around the issue of energy and
water. I represent a district right on Lake Michigan and of
course, the Great Lakes contain 20 percent of the world's fresh
water. And Lake Michigan on which my district resides is the
only lake that's totally and completely contained within the
United States. And so therefore, we have industries--120
industries--that relate to water development. We have a
university that has an industry, an educational and academic
system that is developed around water resources.
The impact of climate change and the lack of water on Earth
is going to have a greater impact on women than anyone else as
they seek to relocate their families. And so I am wondering
what we could do in establishing a network among these
Mediterranean research institutions to work on a dual track, to
work on climate change and water development but also have that
be a way of bringing women who are going to endure the greatest
hardship under the dearth of these resources into these
academic opportunities.
Mr. Roussos. It's a splendid example of having a multi-
dimensional work in the partnership. First of all, water is a
security issue so it is by all means a security issue. It's an
environmental issue and has to do also with the women and
children quality of life and quality of work. Now, of course
there were attempts in the 1990s by the Euro-Mediterranean
partnership, by the Barcelona process, by the multilateral
tracks to create a network of research institutes. But I think
that this network has not been so successful, not because of
the people because of other circumstances--mainly political.
It is a huge opportunity now to use the partnership fund
and I think--to this direction. And also do something else.
And, now, I would like to come back to what our chairman said
about small businesses and micro-banking, micro-lending and
women in these businesses because around protection of water,
around water management, there can be a huge development of
micro-business, micro-lending led by women. We have seen that;
we have seen that in Bangladesh, we have seen that with
fisheries in Bangladesh run by women with the micro-lending by
Grameen Bank, which is a success. So we can go on with these
examples and we can start with the research network and perhaps
also thinking about micro-lending.
Of course, I have here to make a distinction, to make a
note that OSCE is not an economic organization. It's not a
financial organization. World Bank or other organizations can
do this job better. But what OSCE can do is, again, to have the
cultural infrastructure, to have the culture of dialogue of
cooperation and this is the main contribution of the OSCE
partnership.
Mr. Soares. I liked so much the question you put that I
wanted to add something. I think that we as parliamentarians
inside the framework of the OSCE are the best place to deal
with these kinds of issues. And I agree with you. The paper
that our Moroccan friends came to us--I quoted it in the first
speech I made in the opening. It was one of the best papers we
have here and the fact that our Moroccan colleagues took the
initiative to go to an international conference about the water
means that there is the flexibility and the spirit of the OSCE
and especially in the spirit of the parliamentary assembly.
Gender problems--gender equality problems--is one of our
main goals and our main tasks. And we have done work--I've seen
it with my own eyes after Goran Lennmarker, after Alcee
Hastings, I had the pleasure and the honor of being in Central
Asia in places where there are real problems and where we are
facing them and not only with the politically correct and the
photo opportunity--with real work in the field. And sometimes
without the networks.
I was surprised in Central Asia and I spoke this morning
about it and I simply could establish a corporation with Aga
Khan Network because they are dealing with the same goals, with
the same challenges and they are doing such good work in the
model of our own work as far as the parliamentary assembly's
concerned. And that is something that we should always
underline in a proud matter. We have one of the best
secretariats in the world because we have a small budget, a
small secretariat and we make a real work from Vancouver to
Vladivostok.
I was very pleased, I have the opportunity to say but all
Mediterranean partners came to the last presidential elections
in the United States to the observing mission in a great
number. And that means also the attraction that the United
States has to our Mediterranean partners. But that means also,
the quality of the work we are doing and I propose for example
in the former ministerial council in Corfu the idea of taking
good ideas that in other institutions have worked, like the
ERASMUS program in the European Union or your program that came
from the second World War of cooperation in building education
for young people coming from other countries. But the ERASMUS
has made more for the European Union than all the treaties and
that is something that should be brought inside the OSCE.
Excuse me.
Mr. Hastings. Were you going to add one final word there,
Gwen?
Ms. Moore. One final word and the president really said it
much more eloquently than I could have. And that is--and I just
wanted to just disagree a little bit with you, Mr. Roussos, to
say that it's really hard to disaggregate economic issues from
humanitarian issues. And here, we're dealing with it when we
look at the gender inequity because the status of women is like
the canary in the coalmine.
If you can look at the status of women and tell what is
going on in a country--if women lack economic opportunities, if
they are not a part of growing the economy, if there are human
rights issues with including them, the whole economy of the
country will suffer indeed. So women are going to be critically
impacted by climate change and water resources. We need to get
them involved in education and if we could get our
Mediterranean partners to see it as an economic issue for their
future, it would help us deal with some of the human rights and
gender issues as well.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you very much, all.
Ms. Moore. Right.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you, professor. Thank you, Mr.
President and Ms. Moore. I'm sure that President Soares and
President-emeritus Lennmarker and my good friend Senator
Grafstein and Spencer Oliver, the secretary general, all
thought that they would come over here and get away from Tona
Tensguard but that's sort of--for the persons who don't know,
that's inside parliamentary assembly baseball but Ms. Tensgard
has arrival now on gender issues and that Ms. Moore is
constantly involved with us.
Toward that end, we said that we would be here an hour-and-
a-half and we have been. I'd like to say with Mr. Nagisi al-
Hamed, if you would or if you can walk with me, I have to go to
the Rules Committee. It's been an extraordinarily busy day for
all of us. We've had not only a fruitful hearing here this
afternoon but the two days of interaction, in my considered
opinion, was superb.
I'd be terribly remiss--the three staffers here on the desk
with me are persons that were extremely instrumental in causing
this seminar and hearing to be a success. And I want to take a
special cognizance of the work of Fred Turner, the staff
director that many of you have interacted with and continue to
do so and I hope will as well as Alex Johnson who really was
the principal author of many of the specifics and the hard work
that was undertaken. And Marlene Kaufmann who I indicated to
you earlier did in fact write the resolution that is now law in
so far as the House of Representatives is concerned in that it
passed unanimously last night. And I will get for you a copy of
the Congressional Record that has the statements of members of
Congress, including our good friend Chris Smith--when I know
you've got to go, we are all right--our good friend Chris
Smith, the ranking member of this organization.
Also, the fine staffers, interns--all of them that did all
of this extraordinary work--I thank you and compliment you so
well. It's one of the things that I encourage our partner
states as well as the participating states to do more of and
that is to have more young people that are involved as is the
case at the secretariat of the parliamentary assembly--interns
that go on to become career professionals in a variety of
fields dealing with international undertakings.
President Soares, you mentioned the fact that our partner
states came in great numbers to the United States elections.
I'm not one that worries too much about bragging about things
that I do. But I take full responsibility for asking then-
secretary Colin Powell to change the provisions of the United
States to allow for election observers to show you how
important relationships can be and how even though appearances
may look from time to time as if persons have such serious
disagreements that they can't come to terms and do things in a
positive way.
I was in Russia as an election observer and I went out
drinking vodka with two of my Russian colleagues. And one of
them said to me in very serious terms--he says this is your
third time here in Russia observing our elections and I don't
have the privilege of observing yours. I took that to heart and
I came back and for a year, worked with Secretary Powell who
made that change in 2004 and for the first time, we had
observers. For me, the loop was closed in 2008 when the same
person that I had drinks with in Russia that I had drinks with
him in Fort Lauderdale when he came to observe our elections.
That's a part of what developing relationships can produce in
the way of positive results for all of our countries and that's
why I don't believe that there are any barriers that are
incapable of being overcome by humankind.
But I do believe that institutions, not multiplicity of
institutions, but institutions are greater than humans when it
comes to collective undertakings. And therefore, I agree with
my president that the Organization for Security and Cooperation
and more specifically, its parliamentary assembly, has been a
dynamic that has been not observed by the overall community
here in this country as well as in many places in Europe and in
the Maghreb and elsewhere. But they are doing and have done
extraordinary work.
The development of the Mediterranean forum actually came
from a person that I defeated to be president of the
parliamentary assembly. The first person that I know that
mentioned it was a gentleman that I asked to come but he could
not arrange his calendar--is Michele Voissant from France.
Followed by a person that I've had considerable disagreements
with and will continue if he continues his path however in
Albania recently, in spite of our differences, we worked
together to assist in making sure that election observation
went smoothly.
But the second person that took the lead on this would be
Bruce George, a parliamentarian from the United Kingdom. And
that was followed then by my presidency and followed robustly
by the presidency of Goran Lennmarker and even more so in light
of the fact that he lives even closer to the region than
anybody did by now-President Soares. That's how it came about
in the first place and you can be assured you have four of us
that were directly involved and have known each other for a
very long time and see this as vital and critical for stability
in the Middle East and for peace and prosperity throughout the
Maghreb and all of our partner states.
I thank you all for your attention and for being here with
us. And I say to the partner states that are still here that it
is our intention to work with the new Kazakh chair in office
and to continue our efforts to follow up on this seminar. And
as I said in the meeting, I'm hopeful that all of the six
states will host a meeting that all of the six countries will
attend. Thank you.
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