OSCE, Alm.del - 2012-13 - Bilag 32: Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 21-22, 2013

PC Brief Weeks 21/22, 2013I was absent from Vienna all of the first week (for the High-Level Conference on Toleranceand Non-Discrimination and the electoral pre-visit in Tirana, Albania, accompanying Mr.Battelli) and half of the next week (for the Conference of Speakers of Parliament in Ohrid,former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, accompanying President Grossruck). On Thurs-day May 30, the Office arranged and staffed a visit by the Bureau of the Assembly’s FirstCommittee to Vienna, and on Sunday June 2 I contributed to a reception by the Prime Min-ister of Upper Austria for the President. Christian Pauzenberger accompanied the Presi-dent on a visit to Bratislava, Slovakia. During these two weeks a PC meeting and meetingsof the FSC, of several committees, and a substantial number of informal meetings tookplace, as well as an Inaugural Conference of Tracing Illicit Small Arms and Light Weaponsin the OSCE Area took place.The High-Level Conference was attended by a number of Permanent Representativesfrom Vienna. The News from Copenhagen contains a report about this conference and theopening statement of the PA’S Special Representative on South East Europe, Mr. Battelli.The Bureau of the PA’s First Committee attended the meeting of the Permanent Counciland had talks with the Chairman of the FSC, and the Chairman of the PC’s first committee,the Secretary General, and other relevant officials. The PA website has reported about it.In the Permanent Council I had to react to a letter from ODIHR Director Lenarcic that theChairmanship had circulated in Vienna. This letter, as well as other correspondence andthe ODIHR practice in the field, demonstrates that the ODIHR continues to interpret therole of the Special Coordinator and of the PA as laid out in the 1997 Cooperation Agree-ment in a manner incompatible with what the PA has for many years seen as the correctinterpretation of that Agreement. These diverging interpretations are listed in the report ofthe leader of the PA election observers during the EOM in Bulgaria, as well as the practicethat resulted from ODIHR’s narrow interpretation of the Agreement, challenging the PA’sleadership role.The Informal Working Group on Cyber Security, led by the United States, made significantprogress towards drafting a set of CBMs during a two day meeting with capital level ex-perts last week after repeated setbacks over the past year.