Brev fra OSCE PA generalsekretær Roberto Montella vedr. bureaumødet inkl. hans rapport om "Readapting the PA to challenges in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic (OSCE PA - COVID Compact) and a list of upcoming webinars /OSCE PA Parliamentary Web Dialogues"

1
OSCE PA – COVID COMPACT
READAPTING THE OSCE PA TO CHALLENGES IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC
REPORT BY SECRETARY GENERAL ROBERTO MONTELLA
28 April 2020
1. Impact of COVID-19 and immediate OSCE PA response
Since the very outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Secretariat has been
closely monitoring the situation, with the two-fold aim of ensuring the safety and well-being
of all staff as well as the continuity of our key mandated operations. This has been conducted
in close coordination and consultation with the authorities of our two host countries,
Denmark and Austria, as well as with the OSCE executive structures, and in particular their
COVID-19 task force then replaced by the OSCE Crisis Management Team.
As of 12 March, both the Copenhagen Headquarters and the Vienna Liaison Office have been
temporarily closed and all staff switched to teleworking modality from home, which proved
successful and is granting full business continuity to our work. To strengthen our
telecommuting capabilities, we have also purchased the WEBEX Software, a professional
online platform for business meetings. This has, for instance, ensured effective Bureau and
staff videoconferences. Further software, including with language interpretation options, are
currently under consideration.
The ongoing spread of the pandemic has forced us to progressively postpone or cancel
almost all our planned activities at least until the summer. This included the cancellation of
our main 2020 event, the PA Annual Session in Vancouver, as announced in a joint
communique by our President and the Head of the Canadian Delegation1. With the situation
rapidly evolving and uncertainty continuing to rule, it is difficult to predict when regular
activities will resume. The Secretariat will continue to monitor the situation and hopes to
reschedule in the Autumn some of the activities initially planned for the Spring. Instead, the
PA Autumn Meeting in San Marino has been unfortunately already called off.
Unfortunately, a heavy global recession with massive effects on the OSCE region has to be
expected. The PA stands ready to lend a contribution to addressing the economic hardship
which will principally affect the most vulnerable segments of society. Therefore, together
with our Treasurer, we have decided to embody the foreseeable combination of economic
recession and subsequent austerity policies by Governments and Parliaments by requesting
no increases to the 2020/2021 PA budget and additionally using savings of the current
9/ budget as discount for States’ contributions.
1
https://www.oscepa.org/meetings/annual-sessions/upcoming-annual-session
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2019-20
OSCE Alm.del - Bilag 28
Offentligt
2
2. Readapting: why? Relevance of the OSCE PA
In light of the pandemic outbreak and of the above-mentioned disruption of the regular PA
activities, we have deemed important to reconsider our priorities and understand how an
international parliamentary platform for more than 320 Parliamentarians from 57
participating States representing more than one billion citizens could contribute to
addressing the current unprecedented challenges.
The COVID-19 pandemic is much more than a health emergency: it will negatively impact on
the security of our societies and citizens, which are at the core of the OSCE’s focus. Moreover,
the foreseeable severe economic recession and growing social discontent will also impact
political systems with a prevailing climate of uncertainty affecting domestic policy as well as
international relations.
Against this backdrop, international cooperation and coordination at all levels, including the
parliamentary one, are a key asset. Global problems require global responses. However, as
we are already witnessing, there is a high risk of entering into blame games and mistrust
leading to a period of even deeper divisions and a general failure to cooperate. International
Organizations are instrumental to keep multilateralism alive and effective, promoting a
sense of solidarity, responsibility and joint ownership of efforts among States.
Moreover, in the current context, Parliaments are being significantly marginalized in some
countries and democracy and rule of law have seldom been under the severe stress of
executive measures. It is key for Parliaments to remain part of the decision-making process,
to provide effective oversight and to ensure that the necessary discussions do not destroy
the cohesion within societies. Their role is also instrumental in allocating extraordinary
emergency budgets and in ensuring that citizens’ necessities are well represented, especially
during hardship periods. In this regard, the OSCE PA has issued together with the
Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe (PACE) and of NATO (NATO PA) a Joint
Declaration on the Role of Parliaments in times of Pandemic2.
3. Readapting: how? A New Strategy for Parliamentary Diplomacy
Acknowledging the eagerness of the OSCE PA Members to provide a tangible contribution to
the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic by leveraging on the main
parliamentary assets, the International Secretariat produced a Non-Paper in March listing a
set of possible ideas for action, which was sent to the Bureau and to the Standing Committee
for inputs. After careful internal review and feedbacks received, we are considering
readapting the work of the Assembly around three main pillars: a) continuation of the
political dialogue through new formats; b) increase of public messaging; c) exchange of
information, best practices and aid requests.
2
https://www.oscepa.org/news-a-media/press-releases/2020/joint-statement-on-the-role-of-parliaments-in-a-
time-of-pandemic
3
a) Political Dialogue
In the light of the cancellation of the Annual Session and of other activities, Members
emphasized the need to maintain the political parliamentary debate alive. While official
meetings, taking into consideration logistical and procedural constraints, have to be
postponed, the Secretariat is launching a cycle of Parliamentary Web Dialogues on the effects
and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in areas of particular focus and priority for the
Assembly, such as the political and security dimension, the economic dimension and human
rights, as well as migration and countering terrorism. The Parliamentary Dialogues are
online meetings on the model of a webinar, though giving the opportunity to Members to
actively engage, as an alternative to normal committee meetings. They will be organized by
the relevant General and ad hoc Committees, and a final report will be produced, outlining
key findings and eventual recommendations. While the first webinar, on the economic fallout
of the pandemic, has already taken place on 22 April, we are calendarizing a number of
dialogues for the next months, considering topics in accordance to evolving priorities. The
list of upcoming events is available on our website. Our Special Representatives will also be
invited to actively contribute, as we do not intend to renounce to their precious inputs during
this period.
The focus of the web discussions on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic does not intend to
replace, but rather to complement, the continuous attention of our Members on usual topics
of PA work, including conflicts, human rights, etc. On conflicts, the PA has fully endorsed the
United Nations Secretary General’s appeal for a global ceasefire3.
Furthermore, the PA Bureau will continue to meet regularly – in an informal fashion in
addition to its official meeting - to provide general guidelines and leadership to the whole
Assembly, both on political and procedural issues. We also intend to continue the practice of
inviting relevant guests, asking them for some thought provoking inputs to trigger effective
debates. We already hosted Attilio Fontana, Governor of Lombardy – the most COVID-
affected region of Europe, and Vincenzo Amendola, Minister for European Affairs of Italy.
Moreover, the Bureau meeting of 27 April was officially addressed by Edi Rama, OSCE
Chairperson-in-Office and Albanian Prime Minister, and Janez Lenarcic, EU Commissioner
for Crisis Management. Several other high-level speakers will introduce discussions in the
upcoming parliamentary web dialogues.
b) Public messaging and media
The Secretariat and its Media Department will continue to work hard to give voice to our
Members on important topics of concern during these challenging times. In addition to usual
press releases and statements by our leadership on critical events in the OSCE area, we are
seeking to promote op-eds by Parliamentarians on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting
the region and its citizens, from different angles and perspectives of society. For instance,
some of the articles already published touch upon topics such as the role of Parliaments in
emergency circumstances, the future of multilateralism, the impact of the pandemic on
migrants and refugees, data protection, human rights in conflict affected areas, the economic
3
https://www.oscepa.org/news-a-media/press-releases/2020/osce-parliamentarians-endorse-un-sg-s-global-
ceasefire-call-discuss-european-response-to-covid-19-pandemic-and-plan-pa-activities
4
consequences of the pandemic on vulnerable groups, the increase in domestic violence, and
many others. Other tools for public messaging, including video interviews or the registration
of podcasts, can be further explored.
We also intend to use our social media platforms to broadcast the previously mentioned
parliamentary web dialogues to the wider public. Furthermore, we have also launched the
#WeAreOSCEPA campaign on social media inviting Parliamentarians to send messages of
support to their constituents and people of the OSCE area. Finally, we integrated in the OSCE
PA website a live section, which will constantly be updated, on COVID-19 and our related
work.
c) Exchange of information, best practices and aid requests
One of the greatest assets of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is its network and its capacity
to connect authorities and legislators – and ultimately the 1 billion people - of 57
participating States. The International Secretariat has already started to prepare and
regularly update an overview of the main measures taken by OSCE participating States in
response to the pandemic. In this regard, a master table and several infographics are
available on our website and are regularly sent out to Members, tentatively once per week.
Hopefully, they can serve as an exchange of best practices, together with the informal
communication channels we have opened among the Bureau and the Standing Committee,
where our Members are tirelessly sharing experiences from their countries.
Collecting information and successful experiences from all over the OSCE region can enable
Members of Parliament to make more informed decisions, replicate positive measures, and
facilitate the sharing of vital information to the people they represent in their constituencies.
This is a great value of the PA’s unique infrastructure, as it allows a swift two-way linkage
between the international and the local levels of decision making.
The analytical exercise from the Secretariat could expand in the future and address specific
areas more in detail, as for instance new procedures being implemented by Parliaments,
such as remote voting, consultation processes, social distancing options. Current
circumstances will almost certainly also have a significant impact on how elections are run;
as countries adapt their procedures for campaigning and voting to accommodate social
distancing, the Secretariat’s Election Department will of course continue to study
developments and adapt our work accordingly. The Department is also analyzing ways to
ensure effective election observation should elections take place in the coming months but
with significant restrictions to the deployment of a fully-fledged EOM.
The PA network is proving useful also in terms of facilitating cross-border requests for aid.
For instance, the call for urgent delivery of medical equipment by Lombardy’s President
during the informal Bureau Meeting on 25 March activated a series of contacts between our
Members, the Secretariat and Kazakh authorities and led, in very short time, to the delivery
of the needed equipment from a Pharmaceutical company in Kazakhstan to Lombardy. Our
Members are very active both through official and informal channels in this regard, and such
a capacity could be further boosted as a way to facilitate concrete help to citizens in need.
5
4. Cooperation
Especially in a period of crisis it is key for international organizations to cooperate closely,
avoiding duplication and investing in each other’s added values. In fact, it is the international
community as a whole – of which the OSCE PA is part – that must prove that only effective
multilateralism will bring about concrete solutions to the current pandemic. For our
Assembly, there are two main avenues of external cooperation.
The first is within the OSCE family, as it is key for us to lend the parliamentary perspective
to the organization as a whole, and make its action stronger and wider. Cooperation with
OSCE executive structures continues to be excellent and is conducted throughout regular
contacts and close coordination at all working levels. In this regard, the OSCE family,
composed of the 2020 Albanian Chairmanship, the Secretariat, the Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the High Commissioner on National Minorities
(HCNM), the Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) and the Parliamentary
Assembly issued on 23 April, ahead of the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy
for Peace, a joint statement on the Comprehensive security approach needed for global
response to COVID-19 4, positioning the Organization and its unique toolbox to play a role in
facilitating international cooperation to address the pandemic.
The second avenue of cooperation is with partner parliamentary organizations, such as the
Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe (PACE) and of NATO (NATO PA), with
which we already enjoy an excellent cooperation, for instance, on election observation
activities. We have increased coordination meetings with the aim to learn some best
practices from each other especially on how to best support international parliamentary
activities in times of telecommuting. In this regard, we are sharing ideas and information on
the organization of online meetings and other work. We have also strengthened our
coordination on common messages, such as, for instance, the joint appeal by the PACE and
OSCE PA migration committees urging states to relocate unaccompanied minors.
--
In conclusion, the main aim of the OSCE PA in these challenging times of pandemic is to feed
and give lifeblood to multilateral cooperation leveraging on the unique and distinct assets of
parliamentary diplomacy. In particular, ensuring that the main parliamentary legislative,
oversight and representation functions are concerted and amplified at a wider international
level, leading to coordinated and joint decisions for the benefit of all our citizens, equally
affected by a virus that does not distinguish between race, ethnicity, religion or
administrative borders. Finally, I take this opportunity to thank our Members for their
precious support and active engagement, as well as for the excellent interaction we enjoy
almost on a daily basis, in various formats. Together with the indispensable contribution of
our staff, we are managing to keep our Assembly alive and relevant despite social distancing,
and this is a great success. We will spare no efforts to ensure this continues in the difficult
months ahead of us.
4
https://www.oscepa.org/news-a-media/press-releases/2020/comprehensive-security-approach-needed-for-
global-response-to-covid-19-osce-leaders-say


OSCE PA - PARLIAMENTARY WEB DIALOGUES
In light of the cancellation of the Annual Session and other planned activities, and
acknowledging the desire and need to maintain the political parliamentary dialogue alive
among PA Members, the International Secretariat is launching a cycle of Parliamentary Web
Dialogues on the effects and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in areas of particular
focus and priority for the OSCE PA, such as the political and security dimension, the economic
dimension, democracy and human rights, as well as migration and countering terrorism. The
Parliamentary Dialogues are online meetings on the model of a seminar, giving the
opportunity to Members to actively engage on topical issues, similar to OSCE PA conferences.
They will be organized by the Secretariat in close consultation with Assembly and Committee
leadership and are intended to provide input which can inform subsequent findings and
recommendations.
The first one, on the Economic Security Fallout of the COVID-19 Pandemic, has already
successfully taken place on 22 April.
Upcoming dialogues:
• Friday 8 May, 15:00 CET: Respecting human rights and maintaining democratic
control during states of emergency
• Friday 15 May, 15:00 CET: COVID-19 response in diverse societies: threats for
security or path for social cohesion
• Date TBC: 20 or 22 May, 15:00 CET: COVID-19: a turning point for environmental
protection?
• Wednesday 26 May, 16:00 CET: Protecting refugees and migrants during the
pandemic: Camps and closed centres under lockdown
The International Secretariat will send out a short concept note with the agenda, guest
speakers and the WEBEX link invitation prior to each webinar.
Please note that other Parliamentary Web Dialogues will be scheduled in the coming months.
Topics will be considered against the backdrop of the evolving situation and priorities, and
will be communicated in due course.
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2019-20
OSCE Alm.del - Bilag 28
Offentligt


The Secretary General
_________________
Tordenskjoldsgade 1, 1055 Copenhagen K., Denmark
Phone: +45 33 37 80 40 - Fax: +45 33 37 80 30 - osce@oscepa.dk - www.oscepa.org
To:
Members of the OSCE PA Standing Committee
CC:
Members of the OSCE PA Bureau
Copenhagen, 28 April 2020
Dear Members of the Standing Committee,
I hope you and your families are well in these difficult and uncertain times as the COVID-19
pandemic continues to spread in our countries. I am writing to update you about the main points
discussed yesterday by our Bureau during its official online meeting.
As you all know, our Annual Session scheduled for July in Vancouver had to be unfortunately
cancelled. Moreover, following an official communication from authorities just a few days ago,
also the Autumn Meeting in San Marino has to be called off. As for other activities, including
election observation missions, conferences and visits, we will continue to monitor the evolving
situation and update you promptly on when and how they will be able to resume.
The Cancellation of the Annual Session brings along a series of implications:
1. Elected PA Officers will remain in office until the 2021 Annual Session, thereby freezing
the current composition of the Bureau for one more year. This stems from our Rules of
Procedure, which clearly state that elections take place during annual sessions.
2. In the absence of an official meeting of the Standing Committee, consensus (minus one)
on the OSCE PA 2020/21 Budget, as required in Rule 35. 6, will be established by means
of a written silence procedure. You will receive a separate communication on this matter
in the coming weeks. Please be informed that the Bureau, upon proposal of the Treasurer,
is recommending a zero-nominal increase of the current budget and the use of savings as
discount for States’ contributions, as a sign of solidarity and responsibility in this hardship
period.
3. Acknowledging the need to keep the political debate alive among all Members, the
Secretariat has launched a cycle of Parliamentary Web Dialogues on matters of topical
importance for our work. Please see attached a document with a short concept and a list of
upcoming events.
4. The next statutory meetings will be the Bureau Meeting in Tirana in December on the
margins of the OSCE Ministerial Council and the Winter Meeting in Vienna, in February
2021.
5. Consultations are currently being undertaken by the International Secretariat with the
Annual Sessions planned hosts for 2020 and 2021 regarding the venue for the next Annual
Session.
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2019-20
OSCE Alm.del - Bilag 28
Offentligt
The Secretary General
_________________
Tordenskjoldsgade 1, 1055 Copenhagen K., Denmark
Phone: +45 33 37 80 40 - Fax: +45 33 37 80 30 - osce@oscepa.dk - www.oscepa.org
Attached to this letter, you can also find the OSCE PA – COVID Compact, my Report on
readapting the Assembly to challenges in the time of the COVID Pandemic, which summarizes
all our efforts, projects and the relevance of the PA in this particular time.
Please note that we are planning to hold an online meeting for Secretaries of Delegation on 12
May, and then possibly also an informal Standing Committee meeting before the beginning of
the summer. You will receive detailed information in due course.
I take the opportunity to inform you that both OSCE PA Offices in Copenhagen and Vienna
will remain temporarily closed at least until 10 May and Staff will continue to regularly
telecommute from home.
Finally, I wish to renew you my strongest gratitude for your continuous engagement and
precious support to our work.
Yours sincerely,
Roberto Montella
Secretary General