EU foreign ministers doubtful on Russian security proposals

(CORFU) - EU foreign ministers expressed doubts Sunday about Russian proposals for a new security pact, calling for more detail and suggesting that existing organisations be reinforced instead.

"My feeling is that no one wants anything brand new," Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb told reporters on the sidelines of an Organisation for Security and Cooperation meeting on the Greek island of Corfu.

"Everyone thinks -- almost everyone thinks -- that existing security organisations in Europe are working quite well. NATO, the EU, and the OSCE," he said.

Russia last month proposed a new, legally binding security pact to replace what Moscow insists are outdated arms control treaties from the Cold War.

NATO is wary of the idea, seeing in it a plot by Moscow to do away with the military alliance as its expansion moves ever closer to Russia's borders.

"I think the message is that we don't need new structures. We need to reaffirm and strengthen the current structures and for me that means strengthening the OSCE," Stubb said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner echoed the sentiment, and added that the Russian proposals lacked detail.

"Honestly it was not the centre of the discussion. Because we don't know exactly what proposals we're supposed to talk about," he told reporters.

The meeting on Corfu is focused on forging a new security framework, but the discussion is focused on reinvigorating the OSCE, which was founded at the height of the Cold War.

"We need to get the organisation to become more relevant again," said Stubb, who headed the OSCE when Finland held the organisation's one-year rotating chairmanship in 2008.

The pan-European OSCE security body, whose mission is to deal with issues ranging from arms control and crime-fighting to human rights and election monitoring, comprises 56 states from Europe, Central Asia and North America including Canada and the United States.