Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
Permanent Council Brief Week 36, 2008
During this week, which was the first week after the Summer Recess, meetings of the Permanent Council and the Advisory Committee for Management and Finance took place. During the Summer Recess, a number of Special PCs on the situation in Georgia had been held. However, the Permanent Council has not yet managed to find an agreement on the modalities for the deployment of the remaining 80 of the 100 observers that it had agreed to send to Georgia. OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver participated in the Special PC which was addressed by the Georgian FM.
This week's Permanent Council did not take any decision. The main point on the agenda was an address by the Head of UNMIK, Amb. Lamberto Zannier and the report by the Head of the OSCE Mission to Kosovo. In this context, Russia criticized the Chairmanship for not having sufficiently consulted with the “host country Serbia†on the appointment of the next Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. This illustrates the difficulties that arise from the “status neutral†position of the OSCE. Under “Current Issuesâ€, the Permanent Council discussed again the situation in Georgia, as well as the recent steps by Belarus to improve its human rights record, and the killing of a journalist in Ingushetia/Russian Federation.
As a reminder: Before the Summer Break, I circulated a reply to a “non-paper†criticizing the election observation activities of the OSCE PA, which had been distributed by the UK delegation. So far, I have not registered any reaction to this here in Vienna.
The other issue of importance before the summer break was my exclusion from meetings of all ambassadors, so-called retreats, which - among other things - prepare the upcoming Ministerial Council. This is out of line with the spirit of the OSCE Rules of Procedure and deviates from established practice. I have no (positive) news on this issue.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
September 8, 2008