OSCE, Alm.del - 2008-09 - Bilag 43: OSCE PA's årlige session i Vilnius: Praktik og Procedurer

PRACTICAL AND PROCEDURAL INFORMATIONEIGHTEENTH ANNUAL SESSION OF THE OSCE PARLAIMENTARY ASSEMBLYVilnius, 29 June to 3 July 2008This document seeks to give a brief and basic guide to the procedures of the OSCE ParliamentaryAssembly and the practical arrangements relating to them in view of the Eighteenth Annual Sessionto be held in Vilnius, Lithuania from 29 June to 3 July 2009. This document is not exhaustive, andshould be read in conjunction with the Rules of Procedure.General CommitteesThe Rapporteur of each General Committee will present a report, which will form the basis of thedebate in the General Committee. The text of the report is the responsibility of the Rapporteur, andshould be prepared or approved by him or her.The Rapporteur will also present a draft resolution based on the conclusions and recommendations ofthe report. The draft resolution is subject to amendment by Members of the Assembly in accordancewith the provisions of Rule 22(1) of the Rules of Procedure. Amendments should relate to the subjectsaddressed by the Rapporteur in the Draft Resolution.Plenary SessionThe draft Final Document to be debated and considered at the Plenary Session on Friday 3 July will be,in principle, a composite of the three resolutions of the General Committees. In the event ofincompatibilities between the texts adopted by the General Committees, a Drafting Committeecomposed of the representatives of the three General Committees and others appointed by the Presidentwill seek to reconcile them (Rule 38(3)).List of Speakers for General Debate on 2 JulyMembers wishing to speak in the general debate in the Plenary Session on Thursday 2 July should entertheir names in a register provided for the purpose in the Table Office at the latest before the opening ofthe sitting. No Member may speak for more than five minutes in the debate (Rule 26(2 and 7)).Election of Officers of the Assembly*Election of the Officers of the Assembly will be held on the last day of the Plenary Session, 3 July. AllOfficers will be elected by secret ballot (Rule 5(1-3)). In considering proposed candidates the Assemblyshall take into account the national composition of the Assembly (Rule 4(9)).

Under Rule 4(5), candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President must be sponsored inwriting by twenty-five (25) or more Members of the Assembly. Nomination papers should be handed inat theTable Office no later than 10.00 a.m. on Thursday, 2 July 2009.In accordance with Rule4(5), the Bureau will verify the candidatures prior to submission to the Assembly.The ballot will be held on Friday,3 July 2009 between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.(the procedure to beconfirmed by the Standing Committee). The details of distribution of ballot papers, etc. will beannounced at the Vilnius Session. Each Member must vote in person. The Chair will appoint threetellers to supervise the elections and count the ballots.If the number of the candidates nominated is less or equal to the number of the positions to be filled, thecandidates shall be declared elected by acclamation.President of the Parliamentary AssemblyThe President will be elected for a period of one year, until the closure of the 2010 Annual Session(Rule 4(6)). The President may be re-elected only once to the same office (Rule 5(6)).The President,Mr. João Soares, who was elected at the Astana Session in 2008 is eligible for re-election.In accordance with Rule 5(1) “The President shall be elected by secret ballot and each Member entitledto vote may cast one vote. If, on the first ballot, no candidate has obtained an absolute majority of thevotes cast, a second ballot shall be held between the two candidates who obtain the most votes in thefirst ballot. The candidate who, on the second ballot, obtains the most votes shall be elected. In theevent of a tie, the issue shall be decided by lot.”Vice-Presidents of the Parliamentary AssemblyVice-Presidents Benjamin Cardin (USA), Tone Tingsgaard (Sweden), and Oleg Bilorus (Ukraine)will conclude their mandates at the end of the Vilnius Annual Session. Mrs. Anne-Marie Lizin(Belgium), who had been elected Vice-President until the end of the 2010 Session has ceased to bea Member of the Assembly.Therefore, in Vilnius there will be election for four Vice-Presidents. Three will serve for threeyears until the end of the 2012 Annual Session. One will serve for a one year term until the end ofthe 2010 Session.In accordance with Rule 5, Paragraph 6 – Vice-President B. Cardin (elected in Brussels 2006) is eligiblefor re-election.Vice-President T. Tingsgaard (elected in Rotterdam 2003 and re-elected in Brussels 2006) is not eligiblefor re-election.Vice-President O. Bilorus (elected in Washington 2005 and re-elected in Astana 2008 for a one-yearmandate) is not eligible for re-election.The procedure for the election of the Vice-Presidents will be the same as that for the election of the3

President (Rule 5(2)). The Assembly will vote on all four positions of Vice-Presidents simultaneously.The three candidates obtaining the greatest number of votes will serve for three years until the end ofthe 2012 Annual Session. The candidate coming in fourth will serve for one year until the end of the2010 Session.TreasurerThe Treasurer shall hold office from the close of the Annual Session in which he/she is elected, to theclose of the second Annual Session thereafter (Rule 4(8)). The Treasurer may be re-elected twice to thesame office (Rule 5(6)).Mr. Hans Raidel (Germany) was elected Treasurer of the Assembly at the 2007 Kyiv Annual Session.His mandate concludes in Vilnius. Therefore,there will be an election of the Treasurer in Vilnius.

Election of General Committee OfficersGeneral Committees shall elect a Chair, a Vice-Chair and a General Rapporteur, who are the Officers ofGeneral Committees, at the close of the sitting at each Annual Session for the following year (Rule35(5)). Candidates shall be sponsored in writing. Unless the General Committee decides otherwise, theyshall be nominated before the opening of the last scheduled meeting of the General Committee duringthe Annual Session. The General Committee Officers shall be elected by a majority of votes cast in asecret ballot. If no candidate has obtained a majority, a second ballot shall be held between the twocandidates having obtained the highest number of votes in the first ballot. In the event of a tie, the issueshall be decided by lot. If there is only one candidate nominated for an office the candidate shall bedeclared elected by acclamation. In the event of a vacancy arising during the course of the year, theStanding Committee may appoint a substitute.VotingUnder Rule 31(1), the Assembly shall vote by show of hands except in cases where a roll-call vote orsecret ballot is required. Only affirmative and negative votes shall count in calculating the number ofvotes cast. The number of abstentions shall be recorded.Where the Assembly's accounts show that a Member country has not made its due contribution for aperiod of 9 months, Members of its delegation shall not be allowed to vote until the contribution hasbeen received (Rule 40(5)).

Please pay special attention to the Rules of Procedure and the deadlines regarding the submission ofSupplementaryItems,Urgencyitems andAmendments.Supplementary Items (Rule 21)1. “ The agenda of the Annual Session may be supplemented by an item or a motion on anymatter within the competence of the OSCE, which does not relate directly to subjects proposedby the General Rapporteurs to the three General Committees. Such supplementary item shall bein a form of a draft resolution and it shall be received at the Secretariat at least twenty-one daysbefore the opening of the first plenary session with signatures of at least twenty Membersrepresenting at least four different countries. The first signatory of a supplementary item will beits principal sponsor. The Standing Committee shall decide by a two-thirds majority of the votescast whether to include a supplementary item on the agenda of the Annual Session. TheStanding Committee shall then decide by a majority of the votes cast whether to refer asupplementary item to the competent Committee or to submit it to the plenary of the Assembly.2. If more than one supplementary item is presented on the same issue, the President may askthe principal sponsor of the draft resolution which was received first to consult the principalsponsors of the other draft resolutions on the same issue in order to present a compromise draftresolution. If such a compromise draft resolution is received at the Secretariat at least sixteendays before the opening of the first plenary session with signatures of the principal sponsors andat least half of the signatories of each of the two or more draft resolutions in question, it shall bepresented to the Annual Session as a supplementary item and all other draft resolutions on thesame issue shall fall. The principal sponsor of the draft resolution, which was received first shallbe the principal sponsor of the compromise draft resolution. If there is no agreement on acompromise draft resolution, the draft resolution which was received first shall be presented tothe Annual Session and others on the same issue shall fall.”Therefore, a supplementary item must be received at the International Secretariat in Copenhagennot later than on MONDAY 08 JUNE 2009. A compromise draft resolution must be received atthe International Secretariat in Copenhagen not later than on SATURDAY 13 JUNE 2009.AmendmentsThe Standing Committee approved the Vilnius Programme, including the opening of the InauguralPlenary Session of the Assembly on Monday, 29 June 2009. Members are reminded that paragraph 1 ofRule 22 (Amendments) of the Rules of Procedure states:

“Amendments to the draft resolutions presented by the General Rapporteurs or to supplementaryitems shall be submitted in writing and signed by at least five Members representing at least twoOSCE countries. Amendments to draft resolutions prepared by the General Rapporteurs shall bereceived at the Secretariat with the required signatures at least fourteen days before the openingof the first plenary session. Amendments to supplementary items shall be received at theSecretariat with the required signatures at least seven days before the opening of the first plenarysession. The first signatory of an amendment will be its principal sponsor.”Therefore, amendments to the Draft Resolutions must be received at the International Secretariatin Copenhagen not later than on MONDAY 15 JUNE 2009.Amendments to supplementary items must be presented to the International Secretariat inCopenhagen not later than on MONDAY 22 JUNE 2009.The forms for submitting amendments to supplementary items will be forwarded to youseparately.

Members are also reminded of certain other provisions of Rule 22 (Amendments) of the Rules ofProcedure:-the amendments will be considered in the same Committee in which the resolution orsupplementary item, to which the amendment relates, is considered. The Chair of the Committee shalldecide whether the amendment is in order. If the Chair decides that the amendment is not in orderbecause it is not relevant to the Committee’s area of competence or is not a compromise amendment inaccordance with Rule 23, any sponsor of that amendment may refer the matter to the President. ThePresident will determine which Committee is competent to deal with the amendment;-each amendment may only relate to one paragraph of the draft resolution presented bythe Rapporteur;-amendments may be grouped for discussion;

-where there are two or more amendments relating to the same paragraph, theamendments shall be voted in the following order:- amendments to delete the entire paragraph;- amendments to delete part of the paragraph;- amendments that amend the paragraph;- amendments that add to the paragraphDelegations are particularly requested NOT to present amendments which incorporate or re-order largesections of the original Rapporteur’s text. It is necessary in order to allow proper debate that anyamendments be addressed specifically to individual paragraphs of the Rapporteur’s text. Amendmentsshould not take the form of alternative resolutions.

Compromise Amendments“A compromise amendment may be submitted in writing and signed by at least ten Members,representing at least three OSCE countries, including at least two principal sponsors ofamendments already submitted in accordance with Rule 22 on the same issue to the same draftresolution. Any compromise amendment shall be submitted no later than 6 pm on the day of theopening of the plenary session.” (Rule 23, paragraph 1)Urgency1.Questions of urgency may be placed on the agenda of the Assembly at any time on theproposal of the Standing Committee, or in the absence of a meeting of the StandingCommittee, on the proposal of the Bureau. Such questions of urgency must be pertinentto the OSCE process and relate to an event, which has taken place or come to publicknowledge less than twenty-four days before the opening of the first plenary session.Such question of urgency shall be in a form of a draft resolution and it shall be signed byat least twenty-five Members representing at least ten countries. The first signatory ofthe draft resolution shall be the principal sponsor of the question of urgency.In the event of the Standing Committee or the Bureau deciding not to recommend theinclusion of such an item on the agenda, the proposers shall have the right to appeal inwriting to the Assembly, which may decide by a majority of two thirds of the Membersof the Assembly to place the proposal on the agenda.

OFFICERS OF THE OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLYMEMBERS OF THE BUREAUNameMr João SoaresMr Benjamin CardinMs Tone TingsgårdMr Oleh BilorusMr Jerry GrafsteinVACANTMr Kimmo KiljunenMr Kassym-Jomart TokayevMs Pia Christmas-MøllerMr Wolfgang GrossruckMr Hans RaidelMr Göran LennmarkerFinlandKazakhstanDenmarkAustriaGermanySwedenCountryPortugalUSASwedenUkraineCanadaPositionPresidentVice-PresidentVice-PresidentVice-PresidentVice-PresidentVice-PresidentVice-PresidentVice-PresidentVice-PresidentVice-PresidentTreasurerPresidentEmeritusTermTo end 2009 SessionTo end 2009 SessionTo end 2009 SessionTo end 2009 SessionTo end 2010 SessionTo end 2010 SessionTo end 2010 SessionTo end 2011 SessionTo end 2011 SessionTo end 2011 SessionTo end 2009 SessionTo end 2009 Session