Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 20-23

Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 20/21, 2017
During the past two weeks there have been meetings by the Permanent Council
(PC) and the Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC), as well as of the Preparatory
Committee (PrepCom), the Advisory Committee on Management and Finance
(ACMF), the three topical committees, and many more informal meetings. In addi-
tion, there was a two-day 2017 OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference, at-
tended by PA Special Representative on Terrorism Nikolay Kovalev and PA Depu-
ty Secretary General Dzakhaev. I spent the first week on a field visit of the PA
Special Representative on South East Europe, VP Roberto Battelli, and another
two days of the second week at the election observation coordination meeting in
Warsaw. All three events have been covered in Press Releases and the News
from Copenhagen. In parallel to the second week of Vienna meetings, there was
also the 2017 OSCE Youth Conference in Malaga, where the OSCE PA was rep-
resented by Ruta Miliute, MP, Lithuania.
Neither the PC nor the FSC took any decision. In fact, it failed to decide the calen-
dar of the Human Dimension events, with the consequence, that the annual Hu-
man Dimension Seminar that was planned to take place in two weeks, had to be
cancelled. Apart from the usual exchange on Ukraine and related topics under
“Current Issues”, the PC heard and debated a number of routine reports from the
field. There was also an address by a Vice President of the European Commis-
sion, Maroš Šefčovič, in charge of the Energy Union. The main focus of the sec-
ond week was on the very well-attended Anti-Terrorism Conference.
Although there is a number of rumours, officially there has been no progress so far
on the appointments of senior OSCE officials. On some, the Chairmanship has still
not received feedback from a number of delegations. Also, there is still no consen-
sus on the 2017 OSCE Budget, the delay of which is now beating all previous rec-
ords and obviously creating tremendous difficulties.
Italy has seconded an additional staff person to the Office. Liaison Officer and Ad-
visor Marco Bonabello, previously employed by the OSCE Secretariat, started
working on May 15.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
May 26, 2017
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2016-17
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 20
Offentligt


Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
June 12, 2017
PC Brief Week 22/23, 2017
During these two weeks, there have been meetings by the Permanent Council (PC) and the
Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC), the Contact Group with the Asian Partners for Coop-
eration, the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), the Advisory Committee on Management
and Finance, the 2nd meeting of the IWG Structured Dialogue in Capitals Format “Trends in
Military Force Posture”, an Ambassadorial Retreat, and many other informal meetings and
gatherings. In addition, PA Vice President Harstedt held a meeting with the Permanent Mis-
sion of Belarus to the OSCE. Staff from the Liaison Office also participated in PA President
Muttonen’s retreat on National Minorities in Villach (Austria).
The most important result: the PC finally adopted the 2017 OSCE Budget. Almost half a year
into 2017 the OSCE institutions and missions can now start new projects (including the re-
cruitment of staff), which they will have to finish by November to do the accounting. The PC
also extended the mandate of the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe, which, however,
must close down all field offices. Other than that, the SG presented the “Program Outline
2018” - a kind of a political guideline for the drafting of the budget. Furthermore, the usual
briefings/reports were presented and “Current Issues” were discussed. From a PA perspec-
tive, it was remarkable how the head of the field presence in Uzbekistan along with many
ambassadors highlighted the importance of PA President Muttonen’s visit to Uzbekistan. Ad-
ditionally, in the talking points he circulated, SG Zannier reported about the PA’s visit to Tur-
key. I added the PA’s condolences to a series of statements regarding the terrible terrorist
attack in Kabul.
The OSCE Chairmanship also made an effort to get an agreement on the four open posts for
the most senior OSCE officials (Secretary General - SG, ODIHR, High Commissioner on
National Minorities – HCNM, and the Representative on the Freedom of the Media – RFoM).
Out of the lists of candidates that I have reported about, they proposed for SG former PC
Chair Amb. Greminger (Switzerland), for ODIHR Ms. Gisladottir (Iceland), for RFoM Mr. Désir
(France) and for HCNM Mr. Packer (Canada). These decisions having been proposed all at
the same time, with some delegations not accepting one decision without the others, this has
created some confusion. Because, as a package, it could be considered as quite imbal-
anced. However, the Chair as well as other Western delegates insist that this is not meant as
an offer for a “package deal”, but based on the merits of the candidates only. At the same
time, it is obvious that several countries are holding “their” candidates in reserve, and others
are still reluctant to make their position generally known. Despite all this, the Chairmanship
will make another attempt to reach consensus this week, mainly motivated by the urgency of
the matter and the fact that nobody raised strong objections against any of the four individual
candidates.
The second meeting of the “Structured Dialogue” in capitals format “Trends in Military Force
Posture” was again well attended. This time, the PA had a seat at the table. It was less po-
lemical and more to the subject matter than the previous meeting. It also made it very clear
how difficult it has become in the times of 21st century military strategies to qualify military
strength, a comparison which would be the prerequisite for confidence and security-building
measures.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2016-17
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 20
Offentligt