Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 23 2006

Crisis Group urges EU’s greater role in Garabagh settlement

Baku, March 22, AssA-Irada

The International Crisis Group, an organization working to prevent
conflicts worldwide, has presented its report on the resolution of
conflicts in the region.
`To guarantee its own security, the EU must become more engaged in
resolving the conflicts in the South Caucasus lest they ignite into
full-fledged wars in Europe’s neighborhood,’ said the report,
`Conflict Resolution in the South Caucasus: The EU’s Role,’ which
examines the EU’s efforts to address tensions over the long-standing
Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, the Abkhazia
and South Ossetia problems, and future steps.
`Greater engagement is a challenge Brussels has only just begun to
address’, says Sabine Frasier, the ICG project director. `There have
been a few promising steps, but there is a long way to go.’
The report said the EU has carried out insignificant work with regard
to the Garabagh settlement and should therefore step up its efforts
in solving regional disputes.
`With its reputation as an `honest broker’, the EU has a greater role
to play, and offers added value to compliment the UN and the OSCE,’
the report said.
`We are not saying that the [mediating] OSCE Minsk Group’s format
should be altered or its involvement reduced. Our position is that
the European Union should be more extensively involved in the ongoing
negotiations,’ Frasier told local ANS TV channel.
The ICG said that the efforts by the European security body have
yielded no fruit so far and EU could play a greater role in the
conflict resolution. The newly-appointed EU envoy on the South
Caucasus Peter Semneby could be closely involved in the OSCE-brokered
peace talks. The European Commission should set up and delegate a
mission to examine the situation in the occupied Azeri territories.
Preliminary assessment should be carried out by the fact-finding
mission, a strategy on EU’s involvement in the rehabilitation of
territories prepared and the contingent of peacekeeping forces
determined, Frasier said.
The ICG representative added that she would visit the United States
soon and submit the mentioned report to the United Nations office and
the State Department.*