OSCE and IOM agree on formal pact to strengthen co-operation

VIENNA, 30 August 2001 (OSCE) - A formal agreement was signed today in Vienna between the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The two signatories were Secretary General Jan Kubis, on behalf of the OSCE, and Director General Brunson McKinley, on behalf of the IOM.

In this document - formally known as a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) - both organizations commit themselves to pursue the regular exchange of information at headquarters and field office level, the holding of regular consultations and other meetings, boosting representation at conferences, undertaking joint assessments of particular situations and acting jointly where desirable.

Earlier, Mr. McKinley had become the first representative of the IOM to address the OSCE Permanent Council. In his intervention, he told the representatives of the 55 participating States that the signing of the MoU was "just one more formal acknowledgement of the growing relationship and synergies between the IOM and the OSCE".

This document is only the second similar agreement which the OSCE has signed with an international organization. The earlier MoU was signed on 15 October, 1998, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The text of the MoU and the text of Mr. McKinley's intervention is available upon request from the Press and Public Information Section, OSCE Secretariat, Vienna, Austria, tel.: +43-1-514-36-180; fax: +43-1-514-36-105; e-mail: [email protected].

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For further information contact Josue Anselmo, OSCE Spokesperson, mobile 0664 325 3698, or the Press and Public Information Section of the OSCE Secretariat , tel.: +43-1-514-36-180; fax: +43-1-514-36-105; e-mail: [email protected].