Mr. Chairman,

We welcome Mr. Van der Stoel to the Permanent Council and thank him for agreeing to extend his stay as High Commissioner. The OSCE benefits from the energy and commitment, experience and dedication that he brings to his position. We look forward to working with him for an additional year.

The Istanbul Declaration highlighted the need for increased interaction between the OSCE and its Central Asian members. We believe the OSCE has a role to play in addressing the security concerns of the Central Asian participating States. But it can only do this if it retains its focus on strengthening the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Because of this, we support fully the work of the High Commissioner in addressing interethnic tensions in Central Asia – a significant nexus of human and security dimension issues.

We congratulate the High Commissioner on his work with the multi-cultural university in Cluj. This effort lies at the core of all the OSCE represents. It is especially appropriate that Romania is supporting this initiative as part of its preparations for the important role it is to take on in 2001, as the Chair-in-Office of our organization.

We support the importance placed by the HCNM and the Mission on acquisition of the Latvian language as a crucial part of the ongoing social integration process in Latvia. We encourage Latvia to continue its cooperation with the High Commissioner to ensure that passage and implementation of the language law furthers its OSCE commitments.

The question of refugee returns remains a key issue in Croatia. Our Mission’s Return and Reintegration unit has played a vital role in refugee returns, and in reporting on the effectiveness of the Croatian Government’s program for returns. The OSCE co-chairs with the UNHCR the Government of Croatia/International community return coordinating committee. We view this as one of the fundamental activities of the OSCE in Croatia.

The U.S. also places great importance other ongoing OSCE efforts in Croatia – support for free and fair elections, rule of law, and democratic institutions. We believe these are vital for ensuring the security of all Croatians, including minorities.

We commend continued progress in the Slovak Republic on interethnic issues, particularly with regard to the minority language law. We urge continued efforts to integrate more fully the Roma community into Slovak society.

We commend the High Commissioner for his ongoing commitment to help the Government of the FYROM address the desire of so many in Macedonia to pursue higher education in his or her mother tongue.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, the High Commissioner made a special plea for his budgetary request. I would like to fully support that. It is an appropriate, effective and efficient way for us to spend our taxpayers’ money and to represent our Governments’ interests here. One of the addresses in Istanbul described your work and that of ODIHR as, "top of the table," in terms of productivity among international organizations. We cannot imagine but that all of us around this table would fully support the proposals that you have made in terms of budget this morning.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.