OSCE's parlamentariske Forsamling
Special Representative
OSCE alm. del - Bilag 8
Offentligt
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
n
PC Brief Week 42, 2005
This week, meetings of the PC, the PrepCom, the Adv
isory Committee for Management and Fi-
nance and the Working Group on Enhancing the Effective
ness of the OSCE (Reform Group), took
place. I also participated in a two-day seminar, organize
d by the Parliamentary Troika of the Stabil-
ity Pact for South-East Europe, on refugees and internally
displaced persons in the region, which
took place in Skopje, FYRoM.
The Permanent Council approved the timetable and
modalities for the upcorriing Ministerial Council
Meeting in Ljubljana. A central point in the Permanent
Council discussions was the report by the
Director of ODIHR on the recent Human Dimension Impl
ementation Seminar (HDIM) in Warsaw.
While this debate appeared to be the usual routine, some
delegations made references to the dis-
cussion about "Copenhagen Plus" that have started beca
use of Russia's insistence on overhauling
the current election monitoring procedures. For this purpose,
ODIHR has put out an "Explanatory
Note", which has received support from all sides. It reaffirms
the Copenhagen Principles, calling on
the Participating States to do the same, and proposes addi
tional commitments to enhance trans-
parency, accountability and public confidence in the electora
l process. Russia once more sug-
gested to have a much shorter HDIM, and to eventually tran
sfer the seminar and ODIHR to Vi-
enna. Under Current Issues, the usual debates about the upco
ming elections in Azerbaijan, and on
Moldova (this time raised by Russia) took place.
This week's Reform group Meeting was a drafting session,
which discussed two papers, "Elements
for a Draft Decision on Strengthening the Effectiveness of
the OSCE" and one on "Improvement of
the Consultative and Decision-making Process" (mainly on
the issue of establishing a committee
structure with three committees corresponding to the thre
e dimensions). The first paper is based
on the recommendations by the Panel of Eminent Persons.
In paragraph 10 of its preambular part,
it contains a reference to recommendations contained in the
report of the Panel of Eminent Per-
sons "and in other contributions". I had requested the Cha
irmanship to enhance this reference,
which of course is mainly meant to hint at the Colloquium's
recommendations, by making an ex-
plicit reference to the Parliamentary Assembly. I was told that
this was compromise language, be-
cause other papers and recommendations had come out, and
they did not want to include all of
them. I replied that the Parliamentary Assembly was not just
any other contributor, but an institu-
tion of the OSCE and its parliamentary dimension. In the mee
ting, the Chairmanship and Belgium
(incoming chairmanship) said that "other contributions" main
ly meant the Parliamentary Assembly,
but also other documents. Other delegations opposed any spec
ific reference, saying that mention-
ing one would open a flood-gate for other documents that its
authors wanted to be mentioned. I
wrote letters to the delegations that opposed an explicit refe
rence, requesting a change in their
delegation's position. Whether this will be the case, remains
to be seen.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
October 25,
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