Speech on the 20th Ministerial meeting of OSCE - “Ukraine needs more Europe”

I want to use this opportunity to really thank to Ukrainian chairmanship of this organization and steering it and for organizing this really impeccable conference as well as for being excellent host.

I also want to thank OSCE. This is my first opportunity to thank OSCE in the name of Croatia, a country that at our last ministerial council in Dublin was still on it´s way to the European Union to the membership in the European Union. And it was to no small degree thanks to the OSCE mission in Croatia that we managed to build a number of institutions that we didn´t have ten or fifteen years ago especially in the area of human rights and in the area of functioning judiciary. So thank you very much. Actually it really works and this is one of the reason why we support field offices and missions. Because it really worked for us.

One of the most important projects that we are discussing here is the “Helsinki + 40 process” and Ukraine is handing this torch over to the Swiss and Serbian presidency. This is not a small task and we support you, Swiss and Serbian presidency, in your present and future efforts and success. It is a big responsibility, for all of us to think of a new phase in something that is certainly among the most successful projects ever and could prove to be one of the most successful OSCE projects of a new age.

Helsinki, as we all know, especially those of us who were around when it happened, was about many things. But if you ask people today what they remember of Helsinki specifically, what they remember about Helsinki, it would most certainly be - human rights. It would be putting the human rights issue central stage. And with a passage of time, that is an essence that stayed with us. Istanbul reconfirmed that, reconfirmed human rights, I would say, as the most effective instrument and, if I may add, the cheapest instrument of lasting security and stability. There is nothing like the feeling safe and feeling secure personally to create the feeling of security and stability for the whole nations and for the whole countries.

I want to add here something that number of my colleagues around the table have mentioned and this is, to my knowledge, a little bit controversial issue. It is the issue of integrating the gender perspective, or more bluntly, integrating women´s rights as, not only an issue of human rights, but also as the best indicator, the best sign of who has won. Which side has won. Is it the side of enlightment, is it the side of no corruption is it the side of equality and civic justice? Or is it the other side? Sometimes people don´t see it in this new concept of women´s rights, but actually it is the about the society as a whole. Not only the issue of the half of society. It´s about who we are and who is leading forward. OSCE should have a wide action plan for the implementation of the UN SC resolution 1335. Croatia will definitely support that and will work on this aspect because we see it as our common task.

As I´ve mentioned earlier, Croatia will support presence of field offices since they observe elections, they work on enhancing the human rights, they work in the field of stabilizing institutions.

And finally on this list, I want to remind everybody of, at some point very popular concept of and very broadly embraced concept, arms control. This has been marginalized from our organizations including this one and this has received a little attention and maybe we should return to it.

And now on the end, at this time and on this place, as the most important issue because is the issue at hand.

Dear colleagues,

And especially dear Ukrainian hosts, we are here, especially we – the foreign ministers, are here because we care about Ukraine. We could have stayed at home and, as you know, because of the situation here, a number of us, a number of governments in different countries discussed this issue. But we came here because we believe Ukraine is important. We believe that in times of crises Ukraine needs more Europe and not less Europe. Because we believe it is important to show that the Europe and European Union can stand here ready to embrace the cooperation with Ukraine and that the doors are not closed.

So, all of us convened here in Kiev, we were all aware what was happening on the streets. I have been at Maidan yesterday. There were people there, young and old. They were not hostile, there was no sense of tension, hostility, aggression in the air. These people are Europeans. These kids that were there are your kids. They are our kids. And therefore, it is extremely important for them, for you and for us, to stop all hostilities to stop all violence. It is extremely important to go to talk to those kids. Sit down with them. Talk to them. That would be a great step towards establishing a national dialogue and a national dialogue is the best ever invented instrument of stability and security in times of crises in Ukraine, in Croatia, in Europe, everywhere.

So, they are not your enemies, they are not our enemies. We shouldn´t be enemies. Go and talk to them.

Thank you very much.