A silence procedure is a way of formally adopting texts, often, but not exclusively in international political context. A draft version of the text is circulated among participants who have a last opportunity to propose changes or amendments to the text. If no amendments are proposed (if no one 'breaks the silence') before the deadline of the procedure, the text is considered adopted by all participants. Often this procedure is the last step in adopting the text, after the basic premises of the text have been agreed upon in previous negotiations. 'Breaking the silence' is only a last resort in case a participant still has fundamental problems with parts of the text and is therefore the exception rather than the rule.

In the context of international organisations, the subject of the procedure is often a joint statement or a procedural document, a formal vote on which with the members meeting in person is deemed unnecessary. Indeed, it is often impractical to try and stage a meeting between representatives of all member state

Member state

A member state is a state that is a member of an international organisation.The World Trade Organization has members that are sovereign states and members that are not, thus WTO members are not called member states.- Worldwide :...

s either due to the limited importance of the text to be agreed upon or due to time constraints in the case of a joint declaration prompted by recent events. Organisations making extensive use of the procedure are, among others, the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

, NATO and the OSCE.

A textbook on diplomacy

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

 describes the silence procedure thus:

Council of the European Union

Article 12(2) of the Rules of Procedure of the Council of the European Union

Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union is the institution in the legislature of the European Union representing the executives of member states, the other legislative body being the European Parliament. The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers...

 states http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:285:0047:0048:EN:PDF:

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

An expression of the silence procedure is contained in Annex 1(A) "Application of a silence procedure in the Permanent Council and the Forum for Security Co-operation" of the Rules of Procedure of the OSCE (2006) http://www.delvie.ec.europa.eu/en/eu_osce/Rules%20of%20procedure.pdf: