Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 42, 2013

1 of 1
Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
October 21, 2013
PC Brief Week 41/42, 2013
These were the two weeks during which the Election Observation Mission in Azerbaijan and the Budva
Autumn Meeting took place, resulting in my absence for all but two days. Roberto Montella and Marc Ca-
rillet were also absent for several days. During these weeks, there were meetings of the PC, the FSC, the
Contact Groups with the Partners, the Committees and other subsidiary bodies, as well as a one-day am-
bassadorial retreat preparing for the Kiev Ministerial Council. In addition, Secretary General Zannier intro-
duced the draft 2014 Unified Budget. The PA’s Special Representative on the OSCE Budget, Icelandic
MP Dr. Petur Blöndal, took part in the meeting and met with Zannier on the sidelines of the PC.
During his presentation, SG Zannier stated that the PA’s requests for presentations of the budget at its
Fall Meetings had to be seen “in the context of an increasing willingness from the OSCE PA to exercise
oversight on the OSCE and its budget”. He appealed to the Chairmanship and upcoming Chairmanships,
as well as to the participating States, to “clarify the relationship between the OSCE PA and the intergov-
ernmental structures of the organization”. He concluded that, on a personal basis, he will continue to en-
gage with the OSCE PA. It should be noted that in his letter in which he explained why he did not come to
the PA's Autumn Meeting, the Secretary General spoke about presenting "the budgetary implications of
the OSCE activities" instead of referring to his appearance before the PA's Standing Committee as a
presentation of the draft budget. Petur Blondal replied in a statement during the PC meeting (statement
available on PA website) and held a personal meeting with him on the sidelines of the PC.
In the second PC meeting, there was a heated debate on the result of the OSCE election observation in
Azerbaijan. It became clear once again that the constellation in which this election had been observed,
with extreme differences in the perceptions of PACE and the EP on one side and the ODIHR on the other
side, had led to a difficult situation for the PA members in charge. Azerbaijan is rejecting the OSCE state-
ment that had been delivered by the CiO’s Special Coordinator Michel Voisin on behalf of all OSCE ob-
servers as “biased”, and urging participating States to review in particular ODIHR’s election observation
activities. In doing so, Azerbaijan referred to alleged statements by Michel Voisin and by the leader of the
PA delegation for these elections, OSCE PA Vice President Doris Barnett, making it necessary for me to
make a clarifying statement. After the meeting, many Western ambassadors expressed relief that this time
the PA had made it possible to issue a statement together with the ODIHR.
I also briefed the PC and the Contact Group with the Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation about the
Budva Autumn Meetings. During the Mediterranean Contact Group Meeting, the Chairman of the group,
the Swiss Ambassador, referred to reluctance on the part of some participating States to consider Libya’s
application for becoming a Partner for Cooperation, assessing it as premature as long as the situation in
the country remains unstable. The Swiss Ambassador turned the argument around by stating that it is
precisely because the situation is unstable that Libya needs to receive concrete OSCE support, as Libya’s
Foreign Minister had explained it to the PA at its last year Mediterranean Forum.
The ambassadorial retreat discussed possible “deliverables” for the Ministerial Council. So far, only few
drafts have been tabled and there have not yet been official discussions of these drafts. However, in the
Human Dimension Committee, the Russian delegate said that Russia would oppose any references to
“non-consensual” documents, explaining afterwards that this referred also to any PA resolution.
Andreas Nothelle, Ambassador
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2013-14
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 4
Offentligt