European Union News
Saturday
Register of Commission documents:Written answer : VP/HR – Latent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan – Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) investigative mechanism Document date: 2018-03-15 P8_RE(2018)000007 Answers to written questions
Brussels: Public Register European Parliament has issued the following document:
(English version)
Question for written answer E-000007/18
to the Commission (Vice-President/High Representative)
Louis Michel (ALDE)
(3 January 2018)
Subject: VP/HR — Latent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan — Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) investigative mechanism
The conflicts within the OSCE area, especially the one between Armenia and Azerbaijan, are a matter of great concern. The situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region is particularly alarming, as far from being a frozen conflict, it remains a latent conflict. The ‘Four Day War’ that began in early April 2016 has raised awareness of the unsustainability of the status quo as well as the need to move forward, both by stabilising the situation on the ground through the adoption of confidence-building measures and by holding substantive discussions for a peaceful and durable resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The OSCE and EU have gradually been able to cooperate successfully in crisis and conflict management.
How does the EU support the OSCE in its request that concerned parties ensure the full implementation of the investigative mechanism with regard to violations of the ceasefire taking place on the line of contact between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan?
The European Neighbourhood Policy allows the Union to directly intervene in a domain that was until recently restricted to the OSCE, particularly in ‘frozen’ conflicts in Transnistria and the Caucasus (Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia).
How does the European Union intend to assist in enforcing the ceasefire?
Answer given by Vice-President Mogherini on behalf of the Commission
(15 March 2018)
The status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is unsustainable. Conflict resolution can only be an outcome of substantive, peaceful negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The EU supports the efforts of the Co-Chairs of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group toward peace, which is the only internationally recognised format for the task. The EU welcomes the Co-Chairs' revised concept paper on the expansion of the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, which would increase the number of monitors on the ground. It is encouraging that the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed in principle to this expansion in Krakow on 18 January 2018. Once finalised, it would be the first security-related confidence-building measure implemented after the agreements between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the summits in Vienna and St Petersburg in 2016 and Geneva in 2017. Other decisions agreed at those summits, including on an incident investigation mechanism, should also be implemented.
The EU continues, particularly through its Special Representative, to support the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, inter alia by regular meetings with the leaderships of Armenia and Azerbaijan, where the EU messages are reinforced. The EU also funds the European Partnership for the Peaceful Resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (EPNK) initiative to facilitate people-to-people contacts between the sides to overcome the divide, which can contribute to conflict transformation.