Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 43-44, 2015

Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 43, 2015
This week there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC) (on
Nordic Defense Cooperation), the Contact Group with the Asian Partners for Co-operation, the Preparato-
ry Committee (PrepComm), the Advisory Committee on Management and Finance (ACMF), the Security
and the Economic and Environmental Committees, as well as a two-day Economic and Environmental Di-
mension Implementation Meeting on Good Governance.
The Permanent Council approved a decision on date and place of the next OSCE-Asian Conference in Thai-
land (June 6 and 7, 2016). It had another routine agenda (reports by the Co-Chairs of the Geneva talks on
Georgia and by the Economic and Environmental Coordinator). Under “Current Issues”, there was – for
the first time since the cease-fire in Eastern Ukraine began to be effective - a heavy polemic between a
member of the Russian delegation and the US Ambassador. After a long back-and-forth on the issues re-
lated to Ukraine, the US, on another item, stated its expectations regarding the political situation in the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, with Russia replying that this situation called for internal dialogue
without outside interference. In another statement, this time on the situation in Montenegro, the US
called on the anti-government demonstrators for restraint. Russia also raised the issue of ODIHR’s perfor-
mance regarding the recent elections in Canada, criticizing the “small size” of the observer team it had
deployed to the country, which triggered the usual discussions about the autonomy of the institutions in
determining their methodology.
Under the next item of “Current Issues”, Azerbaijan, repeated its related criticism of the ODIHR for its de-
cision not to observe the Azerbaijani elections next week because of the severe restrictions that the coun-
try had imposed on the size of its observation mission, and also criticized ODIHR’s decision to postpone
the sending of an expert team for talks until after the election day. Western countries defended the
ODIHR and its policy to base the strength of their election teams on the needs assessment, repeating their
criticism of Azerbaijan because of the restrictions it had imposed, while Russia reiterated its call for uni-
form rules, including for the size of observation teams. I referred to the latest News from Copenhagen
article regarding the meeting between PA Secretary General Oliver, Director Link and the Head of the Eu-
ropean Parliament’s election department, who had voiced their support for their organizations’ decisions
not to observe. The statement had become necessary because of some confusion created by rumors
about ODIHR’s alleged intention to partly revise its decision. I also underlined the PA’s interest in continu-
ing the good cooperation with Azerbaijan, to which it replied that the PA had broken off this cooperation
by its the decision not to observe, and that it is now on the PA to act if it wants to resume cooperation.
This week’s Economic and Environmental Dimension Implementation Meeting (EEDIM) focused on com-
bating corruption. Participation seemed comparatively lower than in past years. The panel on next steps in
preventing corruption in the OSCE region did not result in a real debate, mostly due to time constraints.
The focus of most contributions was on the presentation of national practices and domestic strategies,
which was seen as a valuable exchange, but took place at the expense of finding a common OSCE
approach in preventing corruption.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador, October 27, 2015
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2015-16
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 4
Offentligt


Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 44, 2015
This week there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), the Forum for Security Co-operation, the Contact
Group with the Asian Partners for Co-operation, the Preparatory Committee (PrepComm), the Advisory Commit-
tee on Management and Finance (ACMF), a two-day Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting (SDHM) on the
OSCE’s Contributions to the Protection of National Minorities, and the “Security Days on Climate Change and
Security”. Roberto Montella was back in the office on Thursday after parental leave and a preparatory visit in Co-
penhagen.
The Permanent Council was addressed by the Chairman-in-Office of the South East European Cooperation
Council (SEECP), Bulgarian FM Daniel Mitov, and heard the ODIHR report about the HDIM. As usual, there was
a discussion about the effectiveness of this event. ODIHR Director Link underlined the good cooperation with the
PA and the role of the PA’s representative, Vilija Abramikiene, during the meeting. Besides the usual discussions
on Ukraine and related issues, which are heating up again, discussions under “Current Issues” also addressed
the ongoing protests in Montenegro, a recent Minsk Group Statement and the ongoing dispute between Azerbai-
jan and ODIHR Director Link about the ODIHR’s decision not to observe the Azerbaijani elections, because of the
restrictions regarding the size of the observation mission. Apparently, Azerbaijan wanted to negotiate with the
ODIHR a downsizing of the observation of the Azerbaijani elections to a small technical team. ODIHR’s non-
compliance with this request is now threatening to affect the discussions on the Unified Budget for 2016. ODIHR
Director Link was present and clarified that ODIHR remains ready to continue assisting Azerbaijan on electoral
matters with technical experts, but that sending a small expert team for election day would not be in line with es-
tablished OSCE election observation methodology. He was supported in this by the EU, the US, Canada and
Norway.
The FSC devoted its debate under the Agenda Item “Security Dialogue” to the Code of Conduct on Politico-
Military Affairs. Having been asked by the Norwegian FSC Chairmanship to take the floor after several presenta-
tions about ombudsmen for the Armed Services, I briefed the FSC about the long-standing support that the PA
has given to the issue and referred to the latest pertinent resolution at our Annual Session in Helsinki, as well as
the previous one on parliamentary oversight over the public and private security sectors (Baku 2014). The EU, in
its statement, welcomed the PA’s engagement.
The SHDM on 29 and 30 October dealt with the issue of national minorities in states, especially in the light of the
Copenhagen Document, the Bolzano/Bozen Recommendations and the Ljubljana Guidelines. Marc Carillet re-
ferred to the upcoming OSCE PA seminar on German-Danish Minorities in Germany and Denmark. The Security
Days Event on "Climate Change and Security : Unprecedented Impacts, Unpredictable Risks" precedes the Paris
Summit on Climate Change due to take place in early December. The discussion revolved around possible roles
for the OSCE after the Paris Summit. However, Climate Change is a topic that many delegations do not see as
part of the OSCE’s responsibilities. The minimum common denominator among participating States on this topic
is "Improving the environmental footprint of energy related activities in the OSCE Region". To some extent, the
event was used to propagate nuclear energy.
The discussions in the ACMF on the 2016 Unified Budget Proposal of 145.4 million Euros, proposing an increase
by 4.3 million Euros (+ 3 %), all of which goes to the Secretariat and the institutions, continue. However, the Spe-
cial Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has a separate 88.7 million Euros budget, which has caused a de facto in-
crease of the total spending of the OSCE by 61 %, more than doubling the expenditure on field operations.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
November 2, 2015
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2015-16
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 4
Offentligt