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Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
Permanent Council Brief Week 36, 2005
This week, due to the Mediterranean Seminar in Rabat, Morocco, a regular Permanent Council did
not take place. Instead, two Special PCs were addressed by the Foreign Minister of Serbia and
Montenegro, Vuk Drakovi , and the FM of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov. A
meeting of the Gender Group was equally held. Finally, a one day seminar OSCEs Future After
30 Years was hosted by the Helsinki Monitor, a Quarterly on Security and Cooperat ion in
Europe, with the support of the Dutch Government.
Foreign Minister Drakovi s address as well as his call for "compromise, compromise,
compromise" and for an unconditional dialogue", which included unconventional solutions, were
very impressive and stirred a lively debate, especially on the issues of the indictees of the Hague
Tribunal, on the future of Kosovo. He also explained the countrys position on the future of Kosovo
under a formula defined as "more than autonomy, less than independence", referring to a plan
offered to the Kraijna (Croatia) Serbs in 1995. Another keyword was Europeanization. On the war
crimes issue he said that Serbia and the Serbs were victims of the former regimes policy and had
every reason to support the court. He also stressed the excellent work of the OSCE mission, and
his good personal relationship with Albania.
In the debate on Foreign Minister Mammadyarovs address, everybody welcomed the recent posi-
tive development in the negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The focus of most speak-
ers, though, lay on the upcoming elections.
In the seminar, issues like transparency, credibility and the OSCE values played a major role. The
Representative of the Chairmanship made an explicit reference to the PAs Expert Report. Former
Secretary General Amb. Höynck also referred to the PA, explaining later that he thought of a h u-
man rights monitoring as performed by the Council of Europe. Former Estonian Foreign Minister
Kristiina Ojuland pleaded for a change in the consensus principle. I took the floor to remind the
audience of our own reform activities, underlining the issues of transparency and consensus, and
called for a better involvement of the PA.
The Chairmanship, in preparation for the Ljubljana Ministerial, has distributed a Food-for-Thought
Paper on the Principles of Integration Respecting Diversity, which sums up the results of different
meetings and might be of interest to the PA in the light of its resolutions on the new minorities.
The upcoming High Level Consultations appear not to become as high-level as it had been in-
tended when the Sofia Ministerial Council took the relevant decision. Most countries will be repre-
sented at best by Deputy Political Directors, with the exception of Russia that is sending a Deputy
Minister.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
September 9, 2005