COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE Senator HOLLINGS. There is included in the budget the amount of $350,000 for the salaries and expenses of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. We will make part of the record a statement prepared by Representative Dante B. Fascell, the Chairman of the Commission. STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE DANTE B. FASCELL, CHAIRMAN MR. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE: Public Law 94-304 appropriated $340,000 for the period beginning July 1, 1976, to remain available until expended. Our budget request for Fiscal Year 1978 is $347,000. This is an increase of $7,000 over the 1977 appropriation. Our budget need for Fiscal Year 1978 is $352,000, which could be met with our requested appropriation of $347,000 combined with $5,000 expected to be carried over from Fiscal Year 1977. Before describing the details of our budget estimate I would like to first review briefly the Commission's present activities. The Commission is an independent agency of the United States government made up of six Members of the House of Representatives, six Senators and three representatives of the Executive Branch from the Departments of State, Defense and Commerce, who are appointed by the President. The Commission was created to review compliance with the Helsinki Accords. We monitor compliance in the areas of human rights, religious liberties, reunification of families, treatment of minority groups, cooperation in the field of cultural and educational exchange, cooperation in trade and economic matters including the exchange of scientific and technological information, notification of military maneuvers, and invitation to observers of military maneuvers. The Commission also works closely with the Departments of Defense, Commerce and State in planning and preparation for the Belgrade Review Conference which will take place during the latter part of 1977. The Commission also reviews U.S. compliance with the Helsinki Final Act, including, in particular, U.S. visa laws and regulations; increased funding for U.S. cultural and scholarly exchange programs with Eastern Europe; and an evaluation of foreign language training in the United States. We also encourage greater efforts be made to inform public opinion about the Helsinki Final Act and encourage private organizations to stimulate implementation through non-governmental initiatives. Last fall the Commission sent a study mission to Europe to meet with government officials, private organizations, and individual experts concerned with the implementation of the Helsinki Final Act. The study mission, including Commissioners and staff, visited 18 countries in 17 days and held hundreds of meetings and interviews to discuss the status of implementation and the prospects for the Belgrade Review Conference which will take place later this year. In a report issued shortly after the study mission was completed the Commission made several recommendations through which the United States could actively seek greater implementation with the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and take a more active role in the "criss-crossing bilateral and multilateral encounters" among Western and neutral countries seeking to formulate an effective approach to the Belgrade Review Conference of the signatory states. The study mission report also included a comprehensive background analysis of the Helsinki Final Act which has been distributed to officials of the signatory governments and other interested individuals throughout Europe and the United States. This document, along with the study mission report, has been hailed as one of the most important working documents produced in the Helsinki evaluation process. The Commission recently sent a study mission to Austria, Italy, and Israel to interview nearly 900 recent emigres from the Soviet Union in an effort to analyze and evaluate the actual procedures and practices through which a citizen of the Soviet Union has to go in order to obtain an exit visa. Commission staff regularly attend meetings, conferences and seminars which take place throughout Europe and the United States to discuss the Helsinki Final Act and the Belgrade Review Conference. Representatives of the Commis sion are frequently called upon to speak before private groups in various parts of the United States concerned with evaluation of the Helsinki accords. As the Belgrade Conference draws nearer we anticipate that there will be an increasing number of meetings and conferences concerned with the subject of Helsinki. The Commission receives semi-annual reports from the President which evaluate, in great detail, the status of compliance with, or violation of, the provisions of the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference. The first report of 182 pages was received last December and was reprinted by the Commission for distribution to all Members of Congress, signatory governments, the press, interested individuals, and organizations in all of the signatory nations. The Commission publishes various documents compiled through staff research and other sources and disseminates this information as widely as possible. continue to make, periodic reports to the Congress on various aspects of the implementation process and the preparations for the Belgrade Review Conference. We are making, and will Through hearings, interviews, study missions, and a multitude of research projects the Commission hopes to provide a comprehensive record of implementation, or lack of implementation, of the Helsinki Final Act prior to the substantive review conference which will take place in Belgrade next fall. The Following is a brief review of the Commission's activities: |