OSCE, Alm.del - 2012-13 - Bilag 48: Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 37, 2013

PC Brief Week 37, 2013As I indicated in my last PC Brief, ambassadors were largely absent during thisweek, due to several events outside of Austria. Consequently, there was no meetingof the Permanent Council. However, there were meetings of the Forum for SecurityCooperation (FSC), the Advisory Committee on Management and Finance and theWorking Group on the Scales of Contributions, as well as several social events.Roberto Montella accompanied President Krivokapic on his official visit to Finland.This week saw the opening session of the four-month Luxembourg Chairmanship ofthe FSC. Jean Asselborn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs forthe country, delivered the opening statement, listing the following areas as prioritiesof the Luxembourg FSC in the build-up to the Kiev Ministerial Council: Arms Con-trol, Afghanistan and the continued modernization and progress on implementationof the Vienna Document. Malta officially joined the FSC Troika, and will assume theChairmanship of the FSC after Luxembourg in January 2014. The minister also an-nounced the names of new diplomats that have taken up coordinator roles withinthe FSC.In the politico-military dimension, it is also noteworthy that the next OSCE SecurityDay will take place next Monday, on the topic of conflict resolution, including media-tion. In parallel, the OSCE is organizing several regional conferences on the Codeof Conduct.As I have reported on several occasions, the OSCE is still working with unchangedScales of Contribution (the share that each participating State contributes to theOSCE budget), despite heavy criticism by some. This week’s informal meeting sawanother – most likely fruitless – attempt to convince the majority of the benefit ofbringing the OSCE closer to the scales used by the UN.Next week, I will have a first post Recess meeting with newly appointed ambassa-dors. The last appointment brought the number of new ambassadors this year up to20, with three posts still vacant.

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