1 of 3 Special Representative To: PA President and PA Secretary General PC Brief Week 28, 2005 This week, meetings of the PC, the PrepCom, and the Mediterranean Contact Group took place in Vienna, as well as the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Human Rights and Combating terrorism, organized by ODIHR. The main point on the PC’s agenda was the address by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis. Another point was the report by the Representative on the Freedom of the Media Miklos Haraszti. Both were met with the usual routine statements, with all the delegations being very positive in their statements on Haraszti. Amb. Tabibian (Armenia) in his statement referred to the two parliamentary Assemblies as being very active, with “the parliamentary mood of the Council of Europe being more ap- parent”. Under “Current Issues”, the PC commemorated the Srebenica killings, co mmented on the Kyrgyz elections and on the situation of the media in Tajikistan, debated positively Kazakhstan’s release of an Uzbek refugee, presented the agreement reached by the mediators on Confidence Building Measures for Moldova and discussed positive developments concerning South Ossetia. The terror attacks on the Lon- don Transport System equally gave rise to comments from the Participating States. On the Agenda of the Mediterranean Contact Group was a briefing on the results of our Annual Session, with particular emphasis on matters related to the cooperation with the Partners. Under this agenda item, I briefed the Group on the outcome of the Annual Conference and presented the Mediterranean resolution to them. The Chairmanship asked me to brief the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting, which took place on Thursday and Friday, about the relevant PA discussions in Washington, in particular the report and the recommendations on Guantánamo, which I did. The meeting resulted in a very open and often vigorously controversial debate between the NGO community and representatives of the Participating States, in par- ticular when both were of the same nationality. Central points were the US policy on the treatment of “ter- rorist combatants”, as well as the situations in Russia and in Turkmenistan, and aspects of the application of torture, either directly or indirectly through the rendition of detainees to countries with a practice of sys- tematic torture. The negotiations on the modalities and the timetable of the High-Level Consultations on the recommenda- tions of the Panel of Eminent persons seem to be more difficult than the Chairmanship had expected. Among the issues is the request of some delegations to explicitly include Election Monitoring as a point for discussion. Other delegations argue that this is a matter of separate negotiations. Another critical point was that several delegations wanted the consultations to not only deal with rules, but also with practices, which they claim are not in line with the rules. I took the floor referring to the PA's resolution and in particu- lar the recommendation to include the Colloquium's report and representatives of the PA into the negotia- tions. I made it clear that nobody could expect high-level representatives of the PA to come to Vienna if they cannot have an active role. It has to be noted though that the meeting will above all provide the framework for informal negotiations between the States and the different groupings. Andreas Nothelle Ambassador

2 of 3 Special Representative To: PA President and PA Secretary General PC Brief Week 29, 2005 This week, meetings of the PC, the PrepCom, the Mediterranean Contact Group, the Economic Sub- committee and a Seminar on 30 years of Helsinki, hosted by the Austrian Government (Wednesday), took place. Upon my question where the Parliamentary Assembly’s involvement into the work of the organization figured in the agenda, the Chair explained that States, who want to do so, may address all the PA's and its experts’ recommendations at the relevant points on the agenda, for instance, if they want to address the role of the PA in the budget process, they can do it when the decision-making process is being discussed. However, since those who have to prepare papers and statements usually follow the structure of an agenda, it might be useful if PA delegations urged their governments to deal with the issue of the PA's role and with the recommendations of the Colloquium. When the Austrian Foreign Minister Dr. Ursula Plassnik addressed the PC a day later, she did in fact not only underline the importance of the “Parliamentary Dimension of the OSCE”, but also said that the possibilities of a greater involvement of the PA could be further used. I replied with a short state- ment under this agenda item, thanking the Austrian Government for supporting our office, but also emphasizing what she had said and recalling the Recommendations of the Washington Colloquium. Russia had reiterated its position on OSCE reform one day earlier in the Seminar, when Dep. FM Chishov spelled out its expectations on the future development of the OSCE. There were only two points under “Current Issues”, namely “Georgia and the Batumi Conference”, and my reply to the statement Moldova had made two weeks earlier on the PA’s resolution on Moldova. The PC also took the following decisions: 1.   Decision on the organizational modalities and the indicative timetable of the High-Level OSCE Consultations 2.   Decision on the Financial Report and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 December 2004 and the Report of the External Auditor The Mediterranean Contact Group discussed the ongoing preparations for the Mediterranean Semi- nar, to be held in Rabat, Morocco, on September 8 and 9. Andreas Nothelle Ambassador

3 of 3 Special Representative To: PA President and PA Secretary General PC Brief Week 30, 2005 This week, meetings of the PC, the PrepCom, the Contact Group with the Asian Partners for Coop- eration, the Working Group on Borders, and a retreat of the ACMF, were held. The PrepCom discussed a report by the Representative on the Combat against Trafficking in human beings, Helga Konrad. While all delegations commended her for her dedication and hard work, there was also a lot of criticism on the details. It appears that not all delegations like her apparent shift in focus towards trafficking for forced labor and in organs. The PC discussed reports by the Director of ODIHR and the Head of the OSCE Presence in Yerevan. The latter was well received by everybody, and the host country underlined that its work was entirely uncontroversial. In contrast to this, Russia again criticized parts of ODIHR’s work as being biased, while acknowledging that a first step had been taken to reform the Election Observation activities. Russia also proposed a number of concrete actions to be taken, especially on fighting hatred by closely cooperating with schools, the media, and the religious communities. Uzbekistan condemned the ODIHR report on the Andijan events Under Current Issues, Moldova again occupied most of the agenda, this time on the issues of the new Moldovan law on Transdniestria, and on Moldova’s request for supporting a border monitoring opera- tion between Moldova and Ukraine. Other issues discussed were “30 Years of Helsinki” and media freedom in Tajikistan. Finally, Germany invited the OSCE to observe the German national parliamen- tary elections on September 18. On Reform, the Chairmanship has issued a “Food for Thought Paper” supposed to serve the High Level Consultations as an annotated agenda. The paper clearly and extensively makes reference to the recommendations of the PA colloquium at almost every point of the agenda. On the other hand, the PA’s involvement in the work of the OSCE does not figure as a point of discussion. The Asian Contact Group worked through a long agenda of briefings for the Partners. A recurring is- sue was the election assistance to Afghanistan. I reminded the partners of the results of the Washing- ton Annual Session. Next Monday, the OSCE begins its Summer Recess. The next PC meeting will be held on September 1. September will be a very busy month for the delegations, with the High Level Talks on September 12/13, the Mediterranean Seminar in Rabat (September 8/9), and the HDIM in Warsaw from Septem- ber 19 through 30. On September 9, the Dutch Delegation will host a one-day seminar on 30 years of Helsinki. Andreas Nothelle Ambassador July 29, 2005