Skopje: A compromise without appeasement

‘Agreeing to a compromise for the greater good, even if it can be painful some times’. That could be the subtitle of a future book on North Macedonia and its path towards EU and NATO membership. Maybe the lessons learned when agreeing on the historic Prespa deal with neighbouring Greece were guiding the OSCE Chairperson-in-office Bujar Osmani when he chaired last week’s Ministerial Council of the OSCE.

In the end, after a short overtime, a compromise was agreed upon that opened a perspective into the future for the organisation that has been questioned so often since the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022. The deep crisis of European security that followed this blatant violation of the principles of the OSCE had a profound effect on the organisation. The political polarisation between Russia and most other OSCE members is limiting the OSCE’s room for manoeuvre. The need for consensus decisions is threatening the long-term perspectives of the OSCE missions on the ground as their mandates need to be renewed annually. That had become clear in the run-up to the meeting in Skopje. The absence of an agreed-upon budget, unclarity about leadership positions and specifically the danger of having no chair in 2024, were major roadblocks for a continuation of the work of the organisation in the coming years, that needed to be dealt with by the foreign ministers.

Three urgent matters

The conditions for a compromise were not promising with Russia blocking many decisions in the past. The policy of ‘no business as usual’ introduced by the Polish chair in 2022 additionally threatened to block even the small issues that could have been agreed upon with Russia. The Council in Skopje had thus to thread a fragile needle. Find an agreement on a chair, continue the mandates for the four leadership posts, and if possible, even secure a budget for next year. At the same time, North Macedonia needed to manage the presence of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov during the Council. The challenge was coming to a common decision, that couldn’t be taken for appeasement to Russia by Ukraine and other participating states.

In the end, Foreign Minister Osmani managed just that. Malta was confirmed as chair for 2024 carrying the torch of the organisation into 2025, when Finland takes over. The leadership positions were also confirmed, albeit only for nine months. The deliberations on the budget failed again, but financial security after the last budget dates from 2021 would have been the cherry on the cake. No one could read this result as appeasing to Russia, especially since Lavrov used his press conference in Skopje to reiterate Russia’s war aims in Ukraine and call US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the EU High Representative Josep Borrell cowards.

A necessary compromise

The noise made by Lavrov might have clouded the decisions of the Council, but the result was the necessary compromise to secure one of the most important multilateral organisations in Europe, preserving its potential for conflict management, confidence and security-building measures, peace-building, as well as the idea of comprehensive security even in difficult times.