Outcomes of Albanian Chairmanship

The Albanian Chairmanship year was momentous for the OSCE in many respects. The year 2020 marked the 45th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act and the 30th anniversary of the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, but it was also characterized by a series of new and unprecedented challenges.

Albania opened the year by noting that, as a small state that has undergone a major transition, it had drawn outsized strength and stability from being part of this values-based security community. Through the Chairmanship, it sought to give back to the Organization. The programme set by the Albanian OSCE 2020 Chairmanship was based on three key objectives:

• Making a difference on the ground;

• Implementing our commitments together;

• Building stability through dialogue.

The Chairmanship prioritized key issues that the OSCE community continues to face: be it military confrontation, the malign use of information and communication technology, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, violent extremism and radicalization, gender equality or the blurred line between state and non-state activity.

But 2020 will be best remembered for other unpredicted developments, including the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed new tests for our governments, communities and the work of the Organization, including the mid-year leadership vacuum in the OSCE executive structures, the situation in Belarus following the presidential election and the outburst of heavy fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh context. These events placed new pressures on the daily work of the OSCE throughout 2020, which the Chairmanship endeavoured to overcome. In the face of this adversity, the Albanian Chairmanship effectively delivered a suite of new deliverables, maintained the OSCE’s operational activities amid the disruption caused by COVID-19 and appointed new management for the Organization.

The culmination of the Albanian Chairmanship, the Tirana Ministerial Council of 3–4 December, produced deliverables rich in number and substance – 11 in all – which for the first time in a six-year period, span across the three dimensions of security, and include the appointment of the Secretary General and heads of institutions. Being the first-ever OSCE Ministerial Council to be held entirely online, it set a number of new benchmarks, with 1,122 participants from participating States, 53 foreign ministers and 94 press representatives. The previous, current, incoming and future Chairs adopted statements on the OSCE’s efforts towards peace with respect to Ukraine and on implementing our commitments together.

DECISIONS AND DECLARATIONS ADOPTED

AT THE 2020 OSCE MINISTERIAL COUNCIL

• Decision on the appointment of the OSCE Secretary General

• Decision on the appointment of the Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

• Decision on the appointment of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities

• Decision on the appointment of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media

• Decision on the OSCE Chairmanship in the year 2023

• Decision on preventing and combating corruption through digitalization and increased transparency

• Decision on prevention and eradication of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

• Declaration on strengthening co-operation in countering transnational organized crime

• Declaration on co-operation with the OSCE Asian Partners

• Decision on the time and place of the next meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council

• Ministerial Statement on the negotiations on the Transdniestrian settlement process in the “5+2” format