Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 36, 37 og 38, 2014

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Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 38, 2014
This week, there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), the Forum for Security Cooperation
(FSC), the Contact Group with the Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation, the three committees,
several side events and other informal briefings and discussions.
FSC and the PC again focused on the crisis in Ukraine. Notwithstanding the usual unproductive po-
lemics related to the current confrontation between Russia and the West (six out of ten items under
“Current Issues”), the discussion after the presentation by the head of the Special Monitoring Mis-
sion (SMM) to Ukraine, Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, and in particular his in-depth informal briefing,
demonstrated both the potential of the OSCE in conflict management and the obstacles the organi-
zation is facing. To meet the challenges of cease-fire monitoring, the OSCE is trying to reinforce the
SMM up to the 500 member limit agreed upon previously.
For cease-fire monitoring, as well as the monitoring of borders, lines of fire, and retaken cities, the
SMM needs specialists, most of them coming from the military. Also, some of the staff deployed
needs to be replaced. However, at the time of Amb. Apakan’s briefing, they had received only 55
nominations by participating States. Altogether, the additional observers will cost another 30 million
Euros for the next six months. Also, in order to ensure a minimum of protection, the mission needs a
high number of additional armored vehicles, the procurement of which seems to be extremely diffi-
cult. Safety concerns will persist, as the altogether 12 different armed groups are “not always coor-
dinated” (Apakan). Within the EU, there seems to be disagreement about whether monitoring should
also occur outside of the areas of direct conflict. Since observers need training, their effective de-
ployment will not take place before the October parliamentary elections in Ukraine.
Apart from Ukraine, the PC dealt mainly with the routine report of the Head of the Mission in Albania,
Amb. Florian Raunig. On the sidelines, the Albanian Ambassador and the Chargé d’Affaires of Ko-
sovo to Austria again communicated to me the wish to have representatives of the Kosovo Assem-
bly represented at PA meetings. I briefed the PC about the PA’s upcoming Autumn Session, as did
Roberto Montella in the Mediterranean Contact Group. The Contact Group discussed the severe
threats posed by the “Islamic State” organization and the situation in Libya. Due to the absence of
large-scale cooperation between the OSCE and the Partners in recent years, however, there seems
to be less and less interest the work of the group. The next OSCE Mediterranean Conference is
scheduled to take place in Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on October 27 and 28, 2014. So far, no
speakers from the Partner side have been identified.
The Chairmanship has tabled the first two draft decisions for the Ministerial Council, one on torture
(with language referring to the work of the PA) and a declaration on the involvement of Civil Society
in the OSCE. The US delegation stated that it would oppose drafts in the Human Dimension so long
as there is no agreement on a package that includes some long-standing other issues. Because of
the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw, activities in Vienna will be re-
duced during the upcoming two weeks. The next regular PC meeting
will take place on October 9, while there is no FSC meeting this week.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador, September 22, 2014
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2013-14
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 47
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1 of 1
Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 36, 2014
This week, there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), the Forum for Security Coop-
eration (FSC), the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), the Human Dimension Committee and
several meetings on technical issues, as well as informal briefings and discussions.
During the regular meeting that week, the PC again failed to take a decision on the agenda of
the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw which is scheduled to start
on September 22, 2014 (!!). Open objections to the current draft agenda came from Azerbaijan
and the Holy See, with the Russian delegation voicing sympathy for the objections. Azerbaijan
was dissatisfied with the agenda item on media freedom, opposing an explicit mentioning of
the protection of journalists. The Holy See had supported the original draft and the following
revisions, but has always been unhappy with the failure to mention media responsibility, and it
opposed the newly introduced wording on the topic regarding anti-discrimination, most likely
because of their standard position that the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sex-
ual orientation is not an OSCE commitment. The Chairmanship threatened to proceed with a
non-consensual agenda, but then proposed a substantially shorter agenda without specifica-
tions and subtitles. This agenda was adopted by Special PC today, with all delegations who
spoke emphasizing that this should not serve as a precedent for future HDIMs.
In the PC, a record number of ten items was raised under “Current Issues”. Two of them were
directly on Ukraine, while several others could be seen as related attacks and counter-attacks
between Russia and Western countries. While the Chairmanship and the Conflict Prevention
Center are working hard to help reduce the grave risk for European security stemming from
the crisis, others seem to be more interested in repeating what one can read in the media on a
daily basis. From talks with colleagues I know that some are very unhappy with this unproduc-
tive way of addressing the crisis in an organization which should reduce tension rather than
serve as a propaganda platform. On a positive note, there was a presentation on the comple-
tion of the organization’s successful work on regional disarmament in the context of the Day-
ton Peace Accords, a process which will be handed over to the states in the region. In the de-
bate following the routine report by the mission to Kosovo, Albania and the USA launched an
appeal to bring Kosovo into the organization and allow for its participation in the Permanent
Council. Under “Any Other Business” I informed the PC about the talks President Kanerva had
in Moscow.
Also, during the Summer Recess, two Special PC meetings took place that held – again fruit-
less – discussions on the Ukraine crisis. No decisions were taken. The Liaison Office was rep-
resented in both meetings. Roberto Montella and Firuze Demir from the Office also staffed the
PA’s election observation to Turkey.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
September 8, 2014
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2013-14
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 47
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1 of 1
Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 37, 2014
This week, there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), the Forum for Security Coop-
eration (FSC), the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) and informal briefings and discussions.
There was no regular meeting of the PC this week because of the closing session of the Eco-
nomic and Environmental Forum in Prague during the second half of the week. As mentioned
in last week’s report circulated on Monday, an abbreviated agenda of the Human Dimension
Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw has finally been agreed upon at the special meet-
ing of the PC that took place on Monday.
The Special PC’s main focus was on the crisis in Ukraine. Mr. Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-
Secretary General for Political Affairs, and Mr. Ivan Simonovic, Assistant Secretary-General
for Human Rights, spoke at length about the political and humanitarian issues related to the
crisis in Ukraine as well as the future of OSCE-UN cooperation. The polemics were less bel-
ligerent than previously, most probably because of the cease-fire agreement. Although the
presentations by the two UN officials could have been a basis for more concrete discussions
about future avoidance of bloodshed, it was again left to the Chairmanship and the Secretariat
to give concrete information about the OSCE’s reaction to the cease-fire: 59 staff from the
Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) were immediately redeployed in order to be able to observe
the implementation of the agreement, and the recruitment of an additional 250 observers has
begun. In the regular meeting of the FSC, during which Monaco took over the FSC Chairman-
ship, Russia made a very aggressive statement concerning Ukraine, but also commended
Poland for its detailed announcement of a military exercise.
Under Current Issues, the PC held a brief debate on the current situation in Iraq and Syria
regarding the IS terrorists. Partners for Cooperation participated in this debate. In this context,
Malta again reminded participating States of Libya’s unmet request to be included among the
Partners for Cooperation, and Egypt pointed to an alliance formed by Libya’s neighbors to ad-
dress the threats resulting from the actual political split in the country and the dominance of
the Islamists in some parts. They called for more joint efforts of regional organizations such as
the OSCE and League of Arab States to combat the issue of foreign fighters and extremism.
The USA emphasized its “No-Concessions Policy,” which prevents the USA from engaging in
ransoms for kidnappings, and urged others to do the same. On Moldova, several Western
countries expressed regret that the 5+2 talks on the Transdniestrian conflict originally sched-
uled for 11-12 September in Vienna had been postponed by Tiraspol for the second time this
year. The EU in particular decried Tiraspol’s “preconditions”.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
September 15, 2014
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2013-14
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 47
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