Our mandate on the Economic and Environmental Forum

The participating States agreed in 1992, as laid down in the 1992 Helsinki Decisions (chapter VII, paragraphs 21 to 32), to establish an Economic Forum within the framework of the Committee of Senior Officials (later renamed to Senior Council), “to give political stimulus to the dialogue on these topics, to suggest practical efforts for the development of free-market systems and economic co-operation, and to encourage activities already underway […]”.

In paragraph 20 of Chapter IX on “The Economic Dimension”, the participating States stress the relevance of the Economic Forum as the main venue for discussion of economic dimension issues, and committed to “making the Forum more dynamic through the careful preparation of each meeting well in advance, and a change in format to allow for maximum discussion.”

Annex 1 of the 2003 OSCE Strategy Document outlines the key challenges in the second dimension and underscores the States' commitment to respond to economic and environmental challenges and threats to security by further developing “co-operation among the participating States in various areas, action and policies aiming at strengthening good governance at all levels, ensuring sustainable development in all its aspects and protecting the environment.”

This Decision tasked the OSCE Permanent Council to prepare a report focusing on issues of further improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of the Economic Forum.

This Decision dissolved the Senior Council and transferred its functions and tasks to the Permanent Council, except those relating to the Economic Forum, which was to continue convening as a regular OSCE meeting outside the framework of the Senior Council.

Reflecting the Forum’s increased focus on environmental security questions, the participating States renamed with this Decision the OSCE Economic Forum to OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum.

To make the OSCE’s work in the economic and environmental dimension more effective, the Permanent Council decided to synchronize the annual work cycle in this dimension with the Chairpersonship year, dividing the annual Forum process into three separate but connected meetings.

In this Decision, the participating States reiterated the potential of activities in the economic and environmental dimension in contributing to confidence and security in the OSCE area and decided to hold an Economic and Environmental Dimension Implementation Meeting on an annual basis.