At the Meeting of the EAPC Luxembourg 29 May 1998

Statement by Mr Flavio Cotti, President of the Swiss Confederation Mr Secretary General, My Dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, During these last years, relations of confidence in Europe have reached a high degree of quality and have given way to concrete projects. The Partnership for Peace and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council are clearly the best evidence of this. Switzerland is particularly keen to multiply and intensify political consultation with the Euro-atlantic Partnership Council in such areas as crisis management, peace-keeping, humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Bosnia, Kosovo and other areas of tension in Europe show us however that confidence and a readiness to co-operate are by no means universal. The developments in Kosovo are causing great concern et are endangering the stability of the whole region. The current situation is not acceptable. We appeal to the responsible parties to take the necessary measures towards a political solution. Switzerland is willing to lend its support to the dialogue. Mr. Secretary General, you have presented us the measures decided by NATO to increase the security of Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. By so doing NATO proves its willingness to prevent a worsening of the situation. An important role has been granted to the Partnership for Peace. Switzerland will continue its commitment within the support programme aimed at restructuring the Albanian security forces and welcomes the measures as adopted. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the progress made so far in the civil sector are insufficient. The military commitment remains indispensable to support the peace process. Evidence of this is the need to send additional multinational forces in order to facilitate the return of the displaced persons and install the elected officials. Switzerland welcomes the decision made yesterday by NATO. It maintains its active participation in civil aspects of the implementation process of the Dayton Agreements and its logistical support to the OSCE Mission. Finally let me say some words on the creation of the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Capability. This is in my view an important result of our meeting. It indeed creates the foundations for deploying military resources in a co-ordinated way, when traditional civil resources are insufficient. At the same time it confirms the primary responsibility of the civil authorities and the co-ordinating role of the United Nations. It now remains to implement it quickly: Switzerland will co-operate fully in this task.