OSCE, Alm.del - 2012-13 - Bilag 30: Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 18, 2013

PC Brief Week 18, 2013During this week, (May 1 is an official OSCE holiday) there were meetings of the PC, the SecurityCommittee Meeting (on cyber security, security-related gender issues and the preparations for theAnnual Security Review Conference - ASRC), the Advisory Committee on Management and Fi-nance (ACMF), as well as a Workshop on Sustainable Energy in the Southern Mediterranean. Themain event, however, was a two-day Ambassadorial Retreat on the Helsinki+40. Roberto Montellapaid a two-day pre-electoral visit to Bulgaria.The PC heard an address by the Secretary General of the South East European Regional Cooper-ation Council, former OSCE Coordinator for Economic and Environmental Activities Goran Svila-nović. Beyond praising the work done by the Council to promote regional cooperation and assist itsmembers in their efforts to meet the EU acquis, several EU delegations welcomed that Kosovo hasrecently become a member of the Council (which is a successor organization to the Stability Pacton South East Europe). At the end of May, PA President Wolfgang Grossruck will address themeeting of the Speakers and Presidents of Parliament of the South East European Cooperation.Under Any Other Business, I drew the attention of the delegations to the News from Copenhagenreport about the PA’s pre-electoral visit to Bulgaria and in particular to its description of the currentstatus of PA-ODIHR cooperation there. According to all reports I have been receiving and corre-spondence that I have seen, the ODIHR continues to insist on the same practices that had led tothe Bureau’s Dublin decision to cancel the Cooperation Agreement. I have also been informed thatnot only is there a lack of a positive change in attitude on ODIHR’s side, but that it has sent out anumber of very negative signals instead.The discussion at the retreat was as general as many previous discussions during the Corfu Pro-cess, the “VtoV-Dialogue” and the first meetings on the Helsinki+40 Process – with one notabledifference: The Russian ambassador presented a list of the most burning challenges that need tobe addressed, a list most delegations agreed on, but added that the OSCE is not in a position toproperly deal with any of them. Several delegates criticized him for this pessimistic approach. Irecalled the PA’s recommendations for a greater involvement of the PA and its members, referredto the PA’s contributions to the reform discussion since 2003 and announced once more that theAnnual Session in Istanbul will be devoted to the process.

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