Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 14-15, 16-17 og 18, 2014

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Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 13 - 14, 2014
During these two weeks there were several meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), including
on the OSCE engagement in Ukraine, the Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC), the Prepara-
tory Committee (PrepCom) and the Advisory Committee on Management and Finance (ACMF),
as well as other committee meetings, and the two-day 1st Supplementary Human Dimension
Meeting (SDHM) on the Prevention of Torture. Notably, there was the 54th Joint Meeting of the
Forum for Security Co-Operation and the Permanent Council based on Paragraph 16.3 and
16.3.1.1 Chapter III of the Vienna Document 2011, which refers to “unusual military activities.”
Of particular importance was the Vienna meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly’s Leadership
with the PA delegations from Russia and Ukraine, initiated by the leader of the German PA Del-
egation, Vice-President Doris Barnett, and prepared by the Vienna Office. I also took part in a
Working Breakfast at the Federal Ministry of Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs at the invi-
tation of Austrian Foreign Minister Kurz, bringing the tally of Vienna meetings covered by the
Vienna Liaison Office during the reporting period to 24. At the same time, the Director of the
Presidential Office, Roberto Montella, accompanied the PA President on his visits to Moscow
and Kyiv, while we both attended the PA’s Bureau meeting in Copenhagen. Furthermore, Dep.
Director for Administration, Marc Carillet, staffed the OSCE PA’s election observation mission to
Hungary. The events outside of Vienna have been reported in the News from Copenhagen.
The PC took a decision on the Agenda, Timetable and Organizational Modalities of the 2014
OSCE-Japan Conference (Tokyo, Japan, 16 and 17 June 2014). There is still no consensus on
the 2014 draft Budget. I briefed the Permanent Council about the PA’s activities in and with
Ukraine. During the many debates on the events in Ukraine, the tangible hostility between rep-
resentatives of the participating States persisted, preventing the Permanent Council from being
the open forum for dialogue that it must be in times of crisis. In stark contrast to this atmos-
phere, the PA, on initiative by the leader of the German PA delegation, Vice President Doris
Barnett, hosted a remarkably civil and productive meeting between representatives from the PA
leadership, led by the PA President, and the delegations of Russia and Ukraine. These meet-
ings, to which the President had invited both delegations, further led to a joint bilateral meeting
between the delegations of the two countries, who were led by the Heads of their PA delega-
tions, and another between their respective ambassadors. In the end, after an exchange of in-
formation on a range of issues “vital to their citizens”, they agreed to a joint Press Release and
on the continuation of their discussions. More information is available on the PA website.
The PA’s 3rd Committee Vice Chair, Mehmet Sevki Kulkuloglu, represented the PA at the
SDHM on the Prevention of Torture. The OSCE auditors, the German Federal Court of Audits
(Bundesrechnungshof), briefed me on their offer to present their Audit Report, which will be re-
leased in June, to an appropriate forum of the OSCE PA. The PC is on Spring Recess during
the week before and after Easter.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
April 14, 2014
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2013-14
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 36
Offentligt


1 of 1
Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 18, 2014
This week, because of the holiday (May 1st
), was another week with initially almost no
meetings scheduled. However, in the end, because of the Ukrainian crisis, the ongoing
budget negotiations and other circumstances, there were three special PC meetings,
one again jointly with the FSC, a meeting of the Ambassadorial Working Group on Hel-
sinki+40, as well as meetings of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) and the Advi-
sory Committee on Management an Finance (ACMF) during the first three days of the
week. Marc Carillet represented the PA in all meetings, because I was participating in
the Regional (South East Europe) OSCE Heads of Missions Meeting (RHoMM) in Mon-
tenegro, together with the Special Representative on South East Europe, Roberto Bat-
telli. Roberto Montella and Francesco Pagani (together with Firuze Demir) staffed the
PA’s election observation mission in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Despite the high number of meetings, the discussions were as unproductive as in the
past weeks, with the exception of two formal PC decisions recommending to the minis-
ters the appointment, through the silence procedure, of Michael Link as successor to
ODIHR Director Lenarcic and the extension of the mandate of OSCE Secretary Gen-
eral Lamberto Zannier for another three years. Russia again did not participate in the
Vienna Doument (VD) triggered discussions of the joint PC-FSC meeting. A Human
Dimension Seminar is planned to take place on 12-14th of May in Warsaw, but there is
still no consensus of the agenda. Marc Carillet briefed the PC on the PA’s activities in
Ukraine and the Helsinki+40 Working Group on the PA’s project.
Despite some optimistic signals, the 2014 OSCE Budget also still lacks consensus.
This endangers OSCE field work. In addition, as we learnt at the RHoMM, the current
requirement for governments to deviate funds to the very costly Special Monitoring
Mission on Ukraine (SMM) threatens the project work of the missions in the region,
which rely heavily on extra-budgetary funds.
In this context it is notable that – while 4,29 Million Euros had been pledged until the
beginning of the week, out of the almost 23 Million necessary for deployment of a full
mission with 500 observers - only 1.6 million Euros had at that point actually been re-
ceived on the OSCE bank account. At the same time, 142 monitors and 17 core staff
were already deployed in Ukraine. Also this will have an impact on the work in the field,
because the missions have not only dispatched their staff to Ukraine during the first
immediate response phase of the SMM deployment and are providing the SMM with
material resources, but some experienced key staff from the missions moved perma-
nently to the SMM, leaving the missions with vacancies that they urgently need to fill.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
May 5, 2014
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2013-14
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 36
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1 of 1
Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
April 25, 2014
PC Brief Week 16 - 17, 2014
During these two weeks before and after Easter, the OSCE had its Spring Recess with no regular
meetings scheduled. However, due to the Ukrainian crisis, there were three special meetings of the
Permanent Council (PC) – one in conjunction with the Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC).
The statements during two of these meetings continued to demonstrate open hostility between Rus-
sia and Western participating States, whereas the third meeting, which took place after the Geneva
talks, started with more moderate statements. However, after Russian accusations against the
Ukrainian government, the PC heard another round of statements similar to those that can be read
in the Press. The main agenda item of the joint PC-FSC meeting was “unusual military activities”.
However, Russia, whose military moves had led to the request by several participating States to
enter into consultations about this, refused to take part in the discussions under this agenda item,
claiming that the request to put this on the agenda lacked factual justification.
Despite appeals by the Swiss Chairmanship, it is not possible to detect serious efforts by the dele-
gations to reduce tensions; all sides seem to use the OSCE mainly as a forum in which they can to
try to prove their point by making statements that are no different from what is written in the Press.
The “OSCE toolbox” is being used by the different activities undertaken by the OSCE - based on the
Vienna Document (military monitors), or the Special Monitoring Mission (Amb. Apakan), the special
project on enhancing internal Ukrainian dialogue (Amb. Biscevic), the OSCE election observation
(short term mission led by Joao Soares, with long-term presence on the ground, and the ODIHR
long-term observation), as well as other activities by the ODIHR, the High Commissioner on National
Minorities and the Representative on the Freedom of the Media. The deployment of additional moni-
tors for the SMM, which is under preparation by the Secretariat in order to bring it up to the targeted
500 monitors, will cost another 18,2 million Euros. The money is largely coming from extra-
budgetary contributions from countries that cannot be considered non-partisan in this conflict, which
is the usual OSCE way of financing projects. However, this will make it very difficult for the SMM to
establish facts in a way that they impact on the behavior of the conflicting parties.
What would really be needed is serious dialogue between all sides, with the objective of creating a
joint understanding about how de-escalation can be achieved. For that to happen, all sides would
have to reflect which of their own past and present activities might violate the “Spirit of Helsinki” or
even openly breach international law and OSCE commitments, which creates suspicions and reduc-
es trust instead of enhancing it. Such a self-critical approach is virtually non-existent. The only time
during the past weeks that it was possible to detect a conciliatory atmosphere was during the meet-
ing between the PA delegations of Russia and Ukraine, which was hosted by the PA in Vienna.
Although there was nothing else on the agenda, some other important developments are under way
as well. No participating State has objected to the Chairmanship’s proposal to put forward draft de-
cisions on the extension of the mandate of the OSCE Secretary General or on the appointment of
the German candidate for ODIHR Director. The next step will be the so-called “Silence Procedure”,
which will lead – if within a short deadline no minister objects - to a ministerial decision.
Andreas Nothelle, Ambassador
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2013-14
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 36
Offentligt