OSCE, Alm.del - 2012-13 - Bilag 39: Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 29, 2013

PC Brief Week 29, 2013This week, meetings of the PC, the FSC, the joint contact groups with the Partners for Cooperation andthe Preparatory Committee took place, as well as an ambassadorial retreat on specific issues of theHelsinki+40 discussion, a Human Dimension Committee retreat on the reform of the human dimensionevents and a two-day drafting session of the Informal Working Group on Cyber Security.By noon of July 17, 2013, no country had “broken the silence” on the Ministerial Council decision toappoint Astrid Thors (Finland) as OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, thereby forcing thedecision into effect. The PC also decided the Dates and Agenda of the 2013 Economic and Environ-mental Dimension Implementation Meeting.The PC meeting was addressed by the Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Council andheard the periodic report by the Head of the Office in Yerevan. Under Current Issues, Azerbaijan’s am-bassador heavily criticized alleged uncorrected mistakes in ODIHR’s Needs Assessment report on theupcoming Presidential Elections in the country. This apparently aroused concerns among Western am-bassadors that ODIHR’s observation might face restrictions, which the Azerbaijani representative triedto assuage.During the PC, I made another statement on the outcome of the Istanbul Annual Session. This was afollow up to a more extensive informal briefing I had offered the day before, upon invitation by theUkrainian chairmanship. The level of attendance at this briefing did not indicate a strong interest ofPermanent Representatives in the many recommendations put forward by the PA. This fact was harsh-ly criticized by one of the Permanent Representatives present, the ambassador of Spain. In the ques-tion and answer session, seven representatives took the floor.I did another briefing for the joint Contact Groups of the Partners for Cooperation, with a particular fo-cus on points of direct relevance for the partners. Unfortunately, in this case as well, the point on thePA recommendations had been put at the end of the long agenda, meaning that almost all ambassa-dors had left the room before the presentation began.During the ambassadorial retreat ambassadors discussed about how debates in the PC and othermeetings could become more productive. The proposals made by ambassadors did not indicate anemerging consensus. I recalled the Washington Colloquium results and PA recommendations on theconsensus principle, and I urged for a stronger involvement of the PA, supporting those who advocatedreducing the weekly rituals, opening up the PC to the public, and formalizing NGO participation, amongother things. On the draft convention on legal status, which was the second issue discussed, I outlinedthe relevant PA recommendations and pointed at the need to define and upgrade the role and status ofthe PA in accordance with PA recommendations. The U.S. is still opposed to any kind of link betweenthe approval of the draft convention and the elaboration of a constituent document.There was hardly any progress in the Informal Working Group on Cyber Security, which is trying to puta number of Confidence Building measures on paper.Andreas NothelleAmbassador, July 22, 20131 of 1

Special Representative