Conventional Weapons Control In Europe

European security is based on a system of treaties and measures for reinforcing the trust and security that has been negotiated since 1990. The cornerstone of the OSCE architecture in terms of European security is the CFE Treaty signed in Paris in 1990 by the members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact and that, in addition to being an agreement that led to the largest reduction in conventional weapons in history, is still the main framework of reference for balancing the conventional forces of our continent through the specific measures of obligatory inspections, checks and information exchanges.

The CFE Treaty was supplemented in 1992 with the Concluding Act of the Negotiation on Personnel Strength of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE 1A), a document politically but not legally binding. Subsequent to this Italy actively participated in the conclusion of the Adapted CFE Treaty signed in Istanbul in November 1999, but not yet in force.

 The CFE Treaty Extraordinary Conference held in Vienna in June 2007 on the request of the Russian Federation bears witness to the topicality of issues regarding the CFE Treaty.

Supplementing this fundamental agreement was the Open Skies Accord concluded in 1992, which represents one of the main examples of security cooperation, envisaging the surveillance of the territory of other States by military observer planes.

The third component of Europe’s security architecture is the system of Confidence and Security Building Measures (CSBM) envisaged in the Vienna Document of 1999: politically transparent, but not legally binding, measures agreed to by OSCE members.