Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 40-42

Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 40-42, 2017
During these weeks, the Permanent Council (PC) and the Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC) met
separately and in a joint meeting. Also, the Contact Group with Asian Partners as well as a number
of committees and other informal bodies and gatherings have held meetings. In particular, there
were a number of conferences: The Economic and Environmental Dimension Implementation
Meeting (EEDIM), a conference on Combating Intolerance, Discrimination and Hatred against Mus-
lims , one on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings in Crisis and Conflict Situations , another one
on Internet Freedom - The Role and Responsibilities of Internet Intermediaries , and a practical
OSCE-UNHCR Seminar on Sharing good practices on statelessness amongst OSCE participating
States . In lieu of the regular meeting of heads of missions and institutions dealing with Eastern
Europe there were I for al Consultations on Eastern Europe at the OSCE “ecretariat .
PA President Christine Muttonen delivered the annual address of the President to one of the PC
meetings, and the Chair of the PA’s Second Committee Nilza de Sena delivered a statement to the
EEDIM. Both appearances, which demonstrated once more the good and close cooperation be-
tween the PA and the O“CE’s governmental side, have been covered on the PA website and in the
News from Copenhagen. Nilza de Sena also had an extensive program of meetings with key inter-
locutors. Francesco Pagani, Marco Bonabello and I participated in the PA’s Autumn Meeting in An-
dorra, Francesco Pagani also in the Regional Heads of Missions Meeting on South East Europe in
Skopje, and Marco Bonabello in the PA visit to Morocco.
The PC extended the deployment of OSCE Observers to two Russian checkpoints on the Russian-
Ukrainian Border until end of January 2018. The debate with PA President Muttonen was marked
by very detailed and substantive replies to her statement and comprehensive references of delega-
tions to PA activities that took place over the past year. In addition to overwhelming praise for the
PA’s work, there was also isolated criticism by two delegations. The general assessment was that
the Preside t’s statement had taken up all relevant issues the OSCE is currently dealing with. Marc
Carillet delivered a reply to the report by ODIHR Director Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir.
The sub-structures of the OSCE decision-making bodies have started to discuss the draft 2018
budget (141.4 million Euros, which is a plus of 1,7% compared to the 2017 budget, but which also
means it stays far below usual budgets in the previous decade). However, it should be noted that
around 84 million Euros need to be added for the separate budget of the Special Monitoring Mis-
sion to Ukraine (SMM), and that there continues to be additional financing through voluntary and
in-kind contributions in the order of around 140 million Euros, although this figure had also been
significantly higher several years ago.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
October 20, 2017
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2017-18
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 4
Offentligt