The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe was created as a forum for political dialogue and collective decision-making. Its advantages included its broad membership and comprehensive approach to security based on a balance between military and political, economic and humanitarian dimensions.

But the OSCE has deviated from its original objectives and is gradually losing its comparative advantage. The balance between the three dimensions has been lost. The military and political track is stagnating. The OSCE has been postponing, on far-fetched pretexts, implementation of the Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, signed in 1999, which is crucial to stability and security. It has also failed to make a meaningful contribution to the solution of economic problems. The OSCE's emphasis is increasingly drifting towards the humanitarian area - but according to its peculiar interpretation. Work in that area is essentially confined to the monitoring of the political situation in individual countries, all of them "east of Vienna", even though they are not the only ones facing problems. That has created another - geographical - imbalance.