OSCE, Alm.del - 2013-14 - Bilag 22: Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 07, 2014

PC Brief Week 7, 2014As this week was host to the Winter Meeting, there were only a limited number of diplomatic activitiesheld within the OSCE. There was no meeting of the Permanent Council (PC), though the Forum for Se-curity Cooperation (FSC) and the Advisory Committee on Management and Finance (ACFM) convenedas usual. In addition, there was an informal meeting on the Comprehensive Conventional AmmunitionStockpile Management Program in the Republic of Moldova. The FSC debated examples of nationalpractices for combatting illicit maritime trafficking of small arms and light weapons (SALW) from France,as well as the aforementioned comprehensive conventional ammunition stockpile management fromMoldova.More importantly, there was intensive interaction by the PA with the governmental side, although theSwiss chairmanship was not represented at the ministerial level. The Chairman of the PC, Amb. ThomasGreminger, addressed questions from the floor, the three Chairs of the three PC committees briefed thethree PA committees, and OSCE Secretary General Amb. Zannier spoke to the joint committee session.During his briefing, Amb. Zannier underlined his conviction that the PA is – and has always been – oneof the OSCE’s most important institutions, as described in the Istanbul Summit Declaration. In the firstcommittee, there was a panel on the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Affairs with briefings bythe Director of the Conflict Prevention Center, Amb. Kobieracki, and representatives from the Chairman-ship and the FSC.In addition, a considerable number of meetings were held on the sidelines of the conference. The Presi-dent, the Committee Chairs, Gender Representative Fry, Vice-President Kanerva and PA SG Oliver allmet with relevant interlocutors from the governmental side. In particular, there was a meeting chaired bythe President with the chairs of the PA and the PC committees, and one of the PC’s coordinators for theHelsinki+40 process, Irish Amb. McDonagh, organized a working dinner between President Krivokapic,Vice President Kanerva, SG Oliver, Maria Chepurina, and myself, during which we discussed the projectwith a number of ambassadors, including representatives from the EU, US and Russia.SG Oliver and I had another side meeting with the Chairman of the PC where we discussed the Chair-manship-commissioned study on Security Sector Governance, conducted by the Geneva Center for theDemocratic Control of the Armed Forces (DCAF) and carried out in close cooperation with the OSCESecretariat. The PA was excluded from this study as the authors, on the basis of false assertions that thePA is for “inter-parliamentary dialogue only” and does not contribute to the organizational work of theOSCE, opted not to conduct the PA for input. SG Oliver requested the study, which is based on theseinaccurate assumptions, be corrected. He raised this issue during his report at the joint session of thecommittees, and I spoke about it this Monday during the Security Committee meeting.President Krivokapic and SG Oliver also reiterated their request for the Chairmanship to include me inthe Group of Friends that will assist in conducting the consultations for finding a successor to departingODIHR Director Lenarčič. The four candidates will present themselves at hearings on March 4 and 5.

Special Representative